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THE GRAPE VINE 



A PKACTICALLY SCIENTIFIC TREATISE ON 



ITS MANAGEMENT. 



EXPLAINED FEOM HIS OWN EXPEKIENCES AND EESEAKCHES, IN A THOKOTJGH 

AND INTELLIGIBLE MANNER, FOR VINETARDISTS AND AMATEURS IN 

GARDEN AND VINE CULTITRE, 



BY 



FREDERICK MOHR, 

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY AND MEDICINE, ETC. 







TRANSLATED EROM THE 
PROPAGATION AND 



AND ACCOMPANIED WITH HINTS ON THE 
TREATMENT OP AMERICAN VARIETIE8, 

BY 



HpRTICOLA 



NETV;,-yORK: 
ORANGK J TJDl) ifc iOMFAJS^Y. 

41 r.^i^"K ito*:.,' 




^^%^ 



IfiA ra. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by 

ORANGE JUDD & CO. 

At the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the 
Southern District of New-York. 



^y transfer iroj* 
«^st. Oflla* Uk, 



LovzjOT & Son, ^ > < ■ 

£lBCTEOTTPEK3 and. ^TVUE9'rTrKR^ 

15 Vandewater street, N. T.*^ 




PREFACE OF THE AUTHOR, 



To popularize the results of modern science concerning 
the cultivation of the grape-vine, is the object which I 
desire to accomplish by publishing this work. For this 
purj^ose the subject required to be reached from two direc- 
tions — the earnest study of the sciences, and the practical 
cultivation of the vine. Progress made by mere practice^ 
is slow and uncertain ; science is too far removed from 
life. Both must be united to produce a material benefit. 
In the works extant, generally but one of the two stand- 
points has been kept in view. 

My native city is so situate that I, with one hand, can 
dip the water of the Rhine, with the other, that of the 
Moselle— those two rivers, on the banks of which the 
noblest vines are produced. 

The exclusively practical works, so abundant in our 
literature, could not give me satisfaction. The connec- 
tion of cause and effect is not clearly understood; thus 
the explanation could not be otherwise than erroneous. 
What mere practice could effect, has been done long ago ; 
without the guidance of science, improvement had become 
impossible. 

I have cultivated the vine practically, following Kecht^ 
and I have reason to boast of my success. Kechfs ar- 



IV PEEFACE. 

rangement, however, and his manner of treating the sub- 
ject leave much to be desired. He distinguishes in a 
vine eleven different things, some of which are the natural 
products of the vine, viz. : shoots and tendrils ; others are 
the products of the hand of man, viz. : spurs and arms. 
This causes confusion. 

The explanation of the growth of the .vine, as well as its 
anatomy, as given in this book, is entirely new. The 
chapter on manuring has assumed a form altogether dif- 
ferent from that in other books. It was all-important to 
elucidate fully the causes for pruning, and to show why it 
has to be performed in the manner described, and in no 
other, because, without this example, custom and authority 
cannot be supplanted. 



PREFACE OF THE TRANSLATOR. 



The translation of the treatise which we o:Ser to the 
American pubUc, is the first part of Dr. Frederic Mohr'^s 
work 0)1 the Treatment of the Grape-vine and on Wine- 
making {Der WeinstocJc und der Wein^ The author is 
one of the greatest chemists of the age. That Justus 
JLieheg is one of his intimate personal friends, is Avell 
known, and evident from the fact that he wrote the second 
part of Dr. Mohr's standard work on Chemical Analysis 
by Measure {die TOr/r Jlfe^Aoc?e), detailing the analysis of 
soils. It has not often been the case that scientific qualifi- 
cations and practical skill have been so happily united as we 
admire them in Dr. Mohr, whose preface explains his stand- 
point as well as the object he seeks to accomplish, that 
is, the explanation and practical application to viticulture 
of the results of modern science. His book does not in- 
terfere with any work extant ; it is rather a complement 
to all of them, as its object is to explain the principles of 
viticulture, and describes only a few methods of training for 
the sake of illustration. In Germany, it is considered as the 
best and most thorough book on the Culture of the Grape 
vine among their many works on the same subject. 
In a recent letter to me. Dr. Edw. Lucas, the great 
Pomologist, whom I had requested to give me a list of 
5 



VI PEEFACE. 

tlie best books on viticultare, says : " Dr. Mohr's book is 
tjie most thorough and best of all." It does not need my 
praise ; it Avill speak for itself 

Although the second part of the original Oji Wine- 
niaklng is as important as the first, yet I concluded to 
separate the two, as there are many more persons inter- 
ested in the cultivation of the vine than in making wine. 
I shall, however, commence the translation of the second 
part very soon. 

In regard to the hints on the j)i'opagation and the gen- 
eral treatment of American varieties which I have added, 
I hope to meet the wants of many readers. Being very 
far from assuming the task of giving instruction, I wish 
only to encourage such as may feel disposed to devote 
part of their leisure hours to a branch of horticulture 
which is as pleasant as it is useful. 

I cannot let this occasion pass, without expressing my 
admiration of the great zeal and enthusiasm with which 
viticulture is pursued in this country at present. The 
names of Longworth and Underhill will, in the history of 
American Grape Culture, never be forgotten. But it is 
chiefly due to the indefatigable exertions of Dr. C. W. 
Grants of lona, that, especially at the East, the love for 
viticulture was awakened, and is now so irresistibly spread- 
ing. The labors of the editors of the Horticultural Maga- 
zines, Messrs. Mead, Woodward, Meehan, Hovey and 
Tilton, and those of the editors of the Agricultural Peri- 
odicals, such as the America^i AgricuUwist, the Country 
Gentleman^ and others, can not be too highly appreciated. 
Dr. Grant's Illustrated Catalogues and Manual of 
Grape Culture^ have had the most happy influence on 
spreading sound views on the treatment of the grape 
among large numbers of people. 

Andrew S. Fuller's Grape Culturist appeared at the 
right time. It is a full, clear exposition of all that is 
needed for practical success. The author treats the sub- 



PBtFACE. Vn 

ject ill so lucid and comprehensive a manner, that his book 
will be used for a long time to come. The works of 
Ernst, Muench, Strong, Husmann, and others, will continue 
doing good wherever they are known. 

I have abstained from interrupting Dr. Mohr's text by 
inserting remarks except in one or two places; the chapter 
on mildew I shortened, omitting what relates to arrange- 
ments to be made in towns and villages against . the 
Oidium, because those arrangements are utterly impracti- 
cable in this country. 

I am in the habit of contributing occasionally some 
trifles to several of our Horticultural magazines under the 
nom-de-plume Horticola. They have been received by the 
horticultural public in the spirit in which I wrote them ; 
to collect and establish facts^ is tlie only aim I have in 
view. I hoj^e some may profit by my little success, and 
be saved from disappointment by my lailures ; for I state 
both, frankly and candidly. In order not to mislead any 
body that knows me under my nom-de-plume, I retain it 
on the title of this translation. The praise this little book 
merits, belongs to Dr. Mohr; all I claim for my hints is 
the indulsrence of the readers. 



o' 



Charles Siedhof, 

Weehawken, N'. J. 



CONTENTS 



The Grape Vine 9 

Development and Structure of the Vine 12 

TheNode 12 

The Branch 15 

Reasons for Pruning 21 

Pruning the Vine 25 

Training on Trellises 26 

Treatment of the Vine in Summer 32 

Grape Vine Plantations 39 

Vines Trained along the Garden Walk 39 

Trellises on Walls 42 

Free Trellises 44 

Vines Trained to Trellises 48 

Bronner's Method '. 49 

Time Required for Covering a Trellis 55 

Manuring the Vine 57 

Age of the Vineyard 69 

The Rising Sap in the Vine 73 

The Grape Disease 76 

Treatment of Vines Injured by Frost 83 

Implements 86 

Proper Time to Perform Work on the Vine 90 

Constituents of the Vine and their Distribution 94 

Propagation of the Vine 99 

" By Layers 100 

" By Cuttings 102 

By Grafting , Ill 

" By Inarching .113 

By Seeds 115 

Hybridization 117 

American Varieties — General Management 119 

Planting 119 

" " Prmiing 129 

" " Pinching 125 

*' " Covering in Fall 126 

8 



THE GRAPE ^^XE. 

The grape vine is, among the plants, iv^liat the horse is 
among animals, — one of the most precious boons nature has 
given to man. It follows him to climatef:. of a very different 
character, and admirably rewards him for all the trouble 
devoted to it. As in the horse, everything in the grape 
vine is beautiful and noble. The delicately shaped leaves, 
the fragrant blossoms, the delicious grapes, extend their 
development over the whole year, except during the severe 
months of winter, and require uninterrupted and careful 
treatment by the hand of man. The grape vine grows on 
the rocky hill, and in the fertile garden, trails on the 
ground and climbs to the roofs of houses. By training it 
may be kept as a small shrub, or made to cover a surface 
of a thousand square feet. 

The grape vine changes its character, and adapts itself 
in a wonderful manner to every country, that affords it 
the necessary warmth. With facility it produces, in the 
hand of man, new varieties, which conform themselves to 
all circumstances. The difference in the varieties is as 
great as in the various races of dogs. The berry varies 
in size from that of a large pea to that of a cherry ; its 
color is green, yellow, flesh color, red, blue, and black. 
Sweetness and acidity are mixed in the most varying pro- 
portions ; its aroma is unsurpassed. 

The grape is decidedly the most noble of fruits ; it is 
sweeter than any other, and the admixture of a little acid 
9 * 1* 



10 THE GEAPE YIXE. 

renders it exceedingly delicious. The liquid contents of 
the grape elevates it above the hard apple. It is the only- 
fruit of our climate which is drunk, rather than eaten. Fi- 
nally, the fermented juice of the graj^e, the wine, prolongs 
the time of the enjoyment of it for a series of years. For 
these reasons, the treatment of the grape A^ne and of wine 
have frequently been the object of human care, and even 
the poets have not felt ashamed to be inspired by it. 

The grape vine is a plant belonging to temperate cli- 
mates. It is found on the continent within a zone, the 
northern border of which extends from the British Chan- 
nel through Northern Germany, to the north of the Black 
and the Caspian Seas to China ; its southern border is the 
coast of Northern Africa to Egypt, where the line bends 
from Suez to the point of the Persian Gulf, not touching 
the sea coast any more. It does not grow in Arabia and 
Hindoostan. 

The northern border of the vine region commences at 
the mouth of the Loire, (47-^° N. L.) Receding from the 
Ocean, it suddenly bends northward, and exten-ds north 
of Paris to 50° N. L. ; it entei's Belgium between Maest- 
richt and Liege, and touches near Bonn, at the fifty-first 
degree of N. L. 

The line runs along the banks of the Rhine to Mayence, 
where it passes into the valley of tlie Maine. Thence it 
passes through Thuringia, touching the Elbe near Meissen. 
It reaches Greenberg, extending through Guben to Lau- 
satia, where it reaches the fifty-second degree of N. L. 
Thence the line bends abruptly towards the south, and in- 
cludes Bohemia. The borders of the wine region do not 
coincide with certain isothermal lines, so that not all 
countries of a certain average warmth are fit for the cul- 
tivation of the vine. It requires a long, warm summer, 
and is able to bear a considerable degree of cold in the 
winter. Although the winters of England are very mild, 
yet the grape vine does not flourish there, because the 



TUE GRAPE VINE. 11 

summers are not warm enough. The hard frozen soil at 
Tokay, in Hungaria, does not prevent the product'.on of 
wine of the greatest excellence. A sea climate is flivora- 
ble to viticulture only in lower latitudes ; in Germany, it 
extends nearly two degrees further north than in France, 
situated nearer to the Ocean. Bordeaux, on the Atlantic 
Ocean, produces wines similar to those produced in Bur- 
gundy, which is considerably more northward, but inland. 

There are, without those borders, here and there certain 
places where the s'ine grows, yet it is, within them, con- 
fined to certain fovorable localities and cannot be grown 
everywhere. It is lemarkable that the most delicious and 
precious wines are produced almost exclusively near the 
northern border of ils cultivation. The noble Ahrbleichei-t, 
and the Walporzheimer, which rivals the wine of Bordeaux 
and Burgundy, grow immediately on the northern border 
of viticulture. Only a few miles further north, the cultiva- 
tion of the vine in vineyards ceases entirely, and the vine 
is only found growing on trellises and houses. The Johan- 
nisberg, Ruedesheim, Steinberg and Rauenthal, are grown 
on the northern border of viticulture in the Rhinegau, 
from east to west. Only a few hundred paces to the 
north, there are the Westerwald and the Taunus. 

The true poetry of wine, its beautiful fragrance, called 
the bouquet of the wine, is the exclusive propeity of the 
northern regions. The wines of the south, however rich 
in alcohol and sugar, are entirely destitute of that bou- 
quet; or they have a common odor, like Port, Madeira, 
Xeres, and Malaga, without any peculiarity. The differ- 
ence, produced by localities and years, disappears in the 
wines of those regions entirely, but it may be distinguished 
in those of northern regions with great accuracy. 

Viticulture has also its history; it is linked with that 
of man. The vine has perished in regions that are no 
longer inhabited ; and where it, at present, grows wild, 
there it was not originally at home. 



12 THE GRAPE VINE. 

The Pramneic and Marseotic wine is only known from 
Homer ; and snch as was given by Ulysses to the Cyclopes, 
has disappeared. ( Vide Homer's Odysea, IX, 208). Wines, 
which can bear that poetical dilution, are unknown to us. 
Also the Vinum Ccecubfm, Massicum and Falermitn., of 
Horace, have disappeared from causes which we shall learn 
afterwards. 

DEVELOPMENT AND STRUCTURE OF THE 
VINE. 

In order to understand the rules for the pruning and 
the treatment of the vine, it is necessary to study the very 
simple structure of that plant. 

Without this knowledge, all practical rules appear en- 
tirely arbitrary; their necessity can not be understood, 
nor can they be carried out with the proper enthusiasm. 
The rules for the management of the vine, derived from a 
long experience, are based on its peculiar structure, and 
are, as soon as that is known, intelligible in themselves. 
In particular cases, w^here horticultural books fail us, we 
are able to infer the true treatment of the vine fi'om the 
knowledge of its structure. We, therefore, premise an 
accurate explanation of the structure of the vine in a 
manner not before attempted ; then the practical instruc- 
tion will follow. 

THE NODE. 

That organ, by the repetition of which the vine is con- 
structed, is the 7iode in the branch. If we look at a fresh 
shoot of a vine, we see that it has nodes, (or joints,) from 
three to five inches distant from each other, and at these 
places all other organs of the vine are put forth nearly at 
the same level. These nodes are repeated on a shoot in 
a manner perfectly alike, only the organs grow in a re- 
versed position of right and left in each following node. 



THE GRAPE VINE. 



13 



We will now carefully examine tlic node. We take a 
branch which grew from an eye in the last spring, and is, in 
the course of the summer, still green. Fig. 1, represents 
such a node. Where the swelling has not quite reached 
its greatest dimensions, there is, in the branch, a joint. 




Fig. 1. — THE >or)E. 

A yomig branch breaks easily in this place when bent 
towards one side. On the lower side there is either noth- 
ing or only the leaf— rt^^ protruding organs grow on the 
upper part. This structure shows that the wood fibers do 
not, as yet, run through. While a branch cannot be 
broken oif smoothly in any other place, it is there very 
brittle. In the course of time this joint disappears ; the 
fibers run through, and in the latter part of the summer 
a node cannot be broken oflT in this place. Immediately 
above the place where it is broken, there is on one side, 1st, 
a leaf, the footstalk of which commences with a protu- 
berance. The leaf itself is connected with the branch by 



14 THE GEAPE VINE. 

means of a joint. It is easier to break it off in this place 
than in any other, without protruding filaments. The 
joint does not grow over, and in the fall the leaf separates 
at this point. 

In the axil of the leaf, 2nd, one or two unequally large 
hudo grow, from which the so-called laterals proceed. 
Generally only one lateral grows ; should there be double 
buds, the Aveaker ones must always be destroyed. By the 
side of the lateral a new eye, the so-called dormant bud, 
forms in the course of the summei'. It is intended to re- 
main during the winter on the vine, and to furnish, in the 
next spring, a green branch. On carefully examining those 
buds, we find that on two nodes succeeding each other, 
the bud is in one of them to the right of the lateral, and 
in the other to the left of it. The branch growing from 
the bud is attached to the main cane by means of a joint, 
and can, as long as it is young, be easily broken off in 
this place. In the latter part of the summer, however, 
the Avood fibers grow through, and the secondary branch 
cannot then be broken off at the joint. 

On the opposite side of the leaf and bud, but at the 
same level with them, there is, 3d, a tendril or a cluster^ but 
without a joint. The fibers run through from the very 
beginning, there is no articulation, and the tendril or 
the cluster cannot be broken off at the place of its origin. 
The tendril, or the peduncle of the cluster, dries up in the 
fill, but never drops ; they are separated from the cane in 
the following year by motion and wind, because they are 
brittle. Tendril and cluster are identical organs. There 
are tendrils with some few berries on them, and clusters 
with a piece of a tendril without berries. Tendril and 
cluster never grow^ by the side of each other. One proof 
of their identity is to be found in the fact that they grow 
from the cane without a joint, and that they dry up in the 
fall, and do not drop. 

If there are tendrils on two successive nodes, the third 



THE GKAPE VINE. 15 

node is always without them, and the place of the node 
opposite the leaf, and the bud presents a roundish protuber- 
ance without any branch. A node destitute of tendrils is 
succeeded by two nodes with tendrils, and so in regular 
order to the end of the branch. 

As tendril and cluster are identical organs, it follows 
that three successive nodes never bear clusters ; if more 
than two clusters proceed from one bud, then the third 
and fourth clusters are separated from the first and second 
by a node destitute of tendrils. 

Recapitulating briefly, we find that the organs on a 
node are distinguished by the following peculiarities : 

1. The leaf is connected witli the branch by a joint, 
through which no fibers grow, but from which it drops of 
itself'' 

2. The bud is connected with the branch by a joint, 
through which the fibers grow and harden. It does not 
drop. 

3. The tendril or cluster is connected with the branch 
without a joint. Tlie place of the connection dries up, 
and it does not drop of itself 

THE BRANCH. 

The branch originates in the repetition of the nodes. 
The distance of two nodes front each other is smaller on 
the lower part of the cane, greater on the upper part, gen- 
erally from three to five inches, but oftentimes more, or 
less." On each of the succeeding nodes the organs are 
found alternating with the preceding and following. In 
the place where there is a leaf on one node there is a ten- 
dril, or a bunch in the preceding and following one. 

The number of the nodes on a branch is very large, 
commonly from 25 to 30. I have counted sometimes as 
many as S3 on strong growing varieties. The number is, 
properly speakijig, unlimited, for in the fall the growth of 



16 THE GRAPE VINE. 

the brancli terminates, as is shown in figure 2, exactly 
with the same fan-like structure, vf ith which it commenced 
in the spring. 




Fig. 2.— THE BRANCH. 

In this lie enclosed innumerable nodes, the development 
of which is only prevented by the ending of the season 
of growth, and the exhausted vigor of the plant. In a 
warm summer and climate, therefore, many more nodes 
will grow than in a cold one. 

On a shoot grown in the spring, there is only a limited 
number of blossoms or bunches. They are produced only 
on the lower part of the green shoot, almost without any 



THE GRAPE VINE. 17 

regularity. The shoot commences with three or four 
nodes, Avhich are either without blossoms or have only 
small tendrils ; then two clusters follow ; then a node 
without a tendril, (as in fig. 2) ; then the third cluster ; 
then again tendrils, which grow the larger the nearer 
they are to the top of the shoot. 

The number of clusters on a green shoot depends on 
the variety of the vine. The rule is two clusters from 
one hud, sometimes from three to five ; I have never seen 
more than five clustei's. If the latter part of the winter 
and the forepart of spring are warm, oftentimes three 
clusters grow from one bud, even if the variety bears gen- 
erally but two. If we recollect that an eye pi-oduces, on 
the average, three bunches, but that the shoot may pro- 
duce from thirty to seventy nodes, it is obvious that a 
grape vine can produce a large quantity of wood and 
leaves which are useless for the production of grapes. 
The clusters grow especially from the lowermost nodes. 
The longest tendrils are found on the uppermost nodes, 
where the plant needs the most support. If a tendril 
touches a solid body only slightly, it bends towards it, 
coils several times around it, and holds to it firmly. The 
cause of this must lie in the structure of the tendril, which 
is different from all other parts of the vine, in the fiict 
that it dries up in the fall without dropping. The ten- 
drils seem to be endowed with vision, as it Avere, because 
they grow towards any solid body near them. 

The eyes of the shoots are all of the same nature. 
TAere are neither wood nor fruit buds exclusively. After 
an unfavorable, cold season, the eyes show in the next 
spring no blossoms ; after a very warm season, they nearly 
all produce blossoms. This proves that the blossoms are 
a higher development of the bud, because greater heat 
was necessary for it. The blossoms are, therefore, always 
formed in the preceding year, and they appear in the fol- 
lowing, however unfavorable the weather may be. Thus 



18 THE GEArE VINE. 

two years are required for the production of a heavy crop 
of grapes. 

At the base of the leaves on the green shoot, there, al- 
ways grow two eyes. One of them pushes during the 
summer, and forms what is called the lateral. It has 
been already mentioned that, alternately, the right and 
the left eye push or remain dormant on two successive 
nodes. This lateral has all the organs like every other 
shoot, and a whole vine may be grown from each of them. 
Generally, the word lateral is believed to convey the 
meaning of a sui^erfluous organ, which nature has care- 
lessly produced. This view is entirely erroneous, and 
experiments will prove that the lateral is capahle of 
producing as heavy crops as the most vigorous cane. If 
a lateral is broken off, the other eye pushes, and a new 
eye commences to be formed. If the second lateral is 
also broken off, the new eye j^ushes, and another dormant 
eye is formed. This may be repeated six or seven times 
during a warm summer. 

If, on the contrary, the first lateral is not removed, the 
dormant eye does not push, and it is changed, in the 
course of the summer, into a fruit bud for the next year. 
Should, however, the last formed eye not have originated 
until midsummer, it cannot be so developed that it be- 
comes a fruit bud, and it produces in the next year noth- 
ing but leaves and wood. 

Hence it follows that, if we wish a certain eye to be- 
come a fruit bud for the next year, we must not remove 
the lateral growing beside it. If the laterals, in a warm 
summer, are broken off, and the dormant eye pushes, it 
often shows blossoms in August, which cannot mature 
their fruit on account of the season being so far advanced. 
This shows conclusively that the formation of blossom 
buds takes place in the course of the summer preceding 
that of the production of fruit. In the year 1858, winch 
was unusually warm, the fruit of the second blossoms also 



THE GRAPE VIXE. 



19 



matured, so that two crops, only a month distant from 
each other, were obtained from Burgundy vines. The 
second croj) was less abundant, and not so good as the first. 
When a person, without any knowledge of the manage- 
ment of the vine, breaks off the end of the shoot without 
any deiinite plan, in order to diminish the quantity of the 
foliage, not unfreqnently blossoms appear a fortnight after 
that operation. The eyes which are forced in this way to 
produce blossoms are those that ought to have been de- 
veloped in the following year. The eyes formed after- 
wards cannot mature their blossoms on account of the 
lateness of the season in which they are formed. 

It is absolutely necessary to understand fully this mode 
of the growth of the vine, because all the rules for grow- 
ing it, so as to obtain 
the largest quantity of 
fruit in a given place, 
are based on it. 

Towards the close of 
the season, the following 
changes take place in 
the shoots that have 
grown from an eye : 

1. The leaf turns yel- 
low, and drops from the 
joint of itself 

2. The jDcduncle, or 
the tendril correspond- 
ing to it, dries up, but does not drop of itself 

o. The green shoot is changed into wood and remains 
permanent, the joints becoming united with the shoot by 
the two oTowino; toorether. 

4. The green color of the shoot is turned brown. The 
wood matures. 

5. The eye remains dormant until the following spring. 
The new branch has now the form of fia:ure 3. 




Fig. 3. — THE NODE IN ATJTUMN. 



20 THE GRAPE VINE. 

At A, below the eye, the place is visible where the foot 
stalk of the leaf was attached ; above, there is the eye, JB^ 
which is going to push in the following year, and to bear 
fruit. A second eye does not exist during the winter ; it 
is developed in the next spring. Beside the eye, JB, the 
lateral, C, is visible. It is to be removed entirely in the 
fall. On the opposite side there is the tendril, D, or the 
peduncle of the bunch, dried up. 

The first period of the life of the shoot terminates by 
chano'inoj its succulent nature into wood. In the first 
year it bears clusters attached to it with their peduncles ; 
in the next year no cluster grows immediately on it, but 
on the green shoot which pushes from the eye perfected 
in the preceding year. Consequently the shoot bears clus- 
ters only once in its life ; in the next year they appear on 
the shoot from the eye ; in the third year on the shoot 
that grows from the shoot; in the fourth year on the 
shoot of the shoot which grows from the shoot, and so on, 
ad infinitum. 

It is noAV necessary to introduce, instead of the generally 
used expression branch, those terms which are made use 
of in viticulture. 

As soon as the green shoot has changed its color and 
turned brown, and the clusters growing immediately from 
it have been harvested, it receives the name of eat^te ; 
it retains this name a whole year, until the clusters have 
been gathered from its side branches, when it becomes 
part of the ste7n. 

Durino; the time the cane was 2:reen it was called a shoot. 

We distinguish, therefore, in a grape vine, the following 
three parts, viz. : 

1. The shoot, of green color, grown in this year from 
the eye, bearing the grapes immediately on the peduncle. 
Its course of life lasts from May until October, or half a 
year ; it was an eye from October until May, also half a 
year. 



THE GRAPE VINE. 2! 

2. The cane^ of brown color, and of smooth bark, bear- 
ing the clusters on a side branch, tbe shoot. Its course of 
life is from October to October, or a year. 

3. The stem^ of black color, the bark separating from it, 
bearing the clusters with the shoot on the cane. Its 
course of life embraces the age of the grape vine, of from 
800 to 1000 years. 

The grape vine, therefore, is progressing reguliirly ; the 
shoot is changed to a cane, and the cane to a stem. The 
stem enlarges more and more as the canes of the preced- 
ing year are added to it. The necessary consequence of 
this process is that the stem, which does not bear grapes, 
increases more and more in extent, and that the clusters 
cannot grow but on the extreme ends of the stem, because 
they are the product of the green shoots proceeding from 
the eye. It follows from these facts that we have to re- 
sort to a method to com^Del the vine to produce new canes 
over its whole extent, lest the greater part of the available 
space would be occupied by the never-bearing stem. This 
method consists in pruning or training, that is, an inten- 
tentional and artificial removal of some parts, to compel 
others near them to push. 

Pruning the grape A'ine has, from time immemorial, 
been considered necessary in its cultivation, although the 
true connection between cause and efi*ect has not been suf- 
ficiently well understood. The vine, however, is capable 
of so much development that even faulty pruning always 
accomplishes a part of its object. Before we proceed to 
show practically the true way of pruning, we must study 
the reasons which render it efiicient. 

THE REASOIS^S FOR PRUNING. 

In the course of the year the movement of the sap in 
the grape vine is subject to great differences. In the 
spring, when the temperature rises, the sap begins to rise 



22 THE GRAPE VIXE. 

also. The eyes swell and produce green shoots. If a 
cane is cut, drops of water flow out — it bleeds. Tlie 
power with which the vine forces the sap upwards is so 
great that we shall devote to it a particular chapter further 
on. In no jDlant is the water flowing out so copious as 
in the vine. If we look at a growing grape vine atten- 
tively, we observe that the development of the eyes is 
the greater the nearer they are to the top of it. The 
length and size of the shoot increase toward the top of 
the canes, and decrease toward the stem. We do not 
know the cause of the movement of the sap ; we cannot 
explain it as satisfactorily as we can the cause of the 
movement of the blood in the animals, in which it origina-tes 
from the contraction of the heart. 

We infer from the fact that the develojmient of the 
eyes increases toward the tojD, that the cause of the move- 
ment of the sap is active over the whole length of the 
cane. This violent and enormous movement of the sap 
lasts but a short time, and soon ceases entirely, so that a 
cane may be cut, and not lose a single drop of sap. If we 
cut off" the uppermost node of a cane, the node preceding 
it, being now the uppermost, shows a powerful growth ; 
if we cut ofi* a longer piece of cane, the most vigorous 
growth always takes jjlace at the then uppermost node. 
From this fact arises the possibility of inducing develop- 
ment on any place by cutting above it. The pushing sap, 
not any more required for the nourishment of the portions 
cut off*, is compelled to contribute to the growth of the 
eyes below the cut. 

We have seen in the above, that if we remove a green 
shoot, the dormant eye beside it pushes immediately. 
This is a fact similar to that explained. If we cut back 
to the stem, so that no canes are left on a part of the stem, 
the rising sap causes the stem to produce new eyes on its 
nodes. As these did not exist in the spring, they are not 
sufficiently developed to produce flowers ; the eyes, 



THE GRAPE TINE. 33 

therefore, pushing from the stem, are necessarily wood eyes, 
but they are capable of producing fruit eyes during the 
summer. This iact enables us to shorten the stem and ts 
make it produce canes. We cut it off, therefore, in a cer- 
tain place, so that nodes are left below it. If the wood 
eyes which are then formed, and have pushed, are per- 
mitted to grow undisturbed, they can bear fruit the next 
year. The poAverful development of the stem, described 
m the above, which all canes a year old have also, com- 
pels us to keep the enlargement of the stem within bounds, 
and to force, by pruning, the nodes below to produce 
shoots and canes. 

The natural development of a cane wliich is permitted 
to grow undisturbed, and without any check, has the fol- 
lowing result : 

Supposing we have a cane of ten nodes, ten shoots will 
grow in the spring, each of which may bear three clusters, 
i. e., thirty clusters on the whole. If all the shoots are 
permitted to grow, each may have produced in the fall ten 
nodes, that is, a hundred nodes on the shoots which will 
became canes in the fall, and these may bear in the follow- 
ing year three hundred bunches. In the third year, the 
hundred nodes would produce a thousand eyes, and would 
consequently bear three thousand bunches^ Xature has 
circumscribed such a development, which is only imaginary; 
for the root would hardly be able to furnish, in the three 
succeeding years, food for the three hundred, certainly not 
for the three thousand bunches. It is evident, at all events, 
that a vine, not restrained in its growth, would spread so 
enormously that any given place would become too small ; 
the stem would, at least every year, increase in its height 
as much as one node is distant from the other. This is 
plain from figure 4, in which only the lowest shoots on 
each cane are shown. The cane, 1, which grows immedi- 
ately from the stem, would, after the lapse of a year, be- 
come a part of the stem. After two years more the cane 



24 



THE GKAPE VINE. 



2, after three years the cane 3, and so on, so that after 
five years the stem would reach to nine. It is a most fa- 
vorable circumstance that we have chosen every year the 




rig-. -1. — PLAN OF GROWTH. 

lowermost shoot to bear next year. Should it be neces- 
sary to choose a cane growing higher up, the stem would 
lengthen in height much more rapidly. The stem increases 
every year one node in height. 

If we further assume that there, where the cane, 1, bears 
fruit this year, is room only for one cane, the existing 
space being occuj^ied exactly in the same manner, we see 
the necessity of cutting off, in the fall, the cane, 1, above 
its lowermost eye, that is, at M, after it has borne fruit. 
In the following year the shoot, 2, pushes and bears fruit. 
After the expiration of the second year it must be cut at 



THE GRAPE VINE. 25 

iV! Now the shoot, 3, pushes, which must be cut at after 
the third year ; in hke manner the shoot, 4, grows in the 
fourth year, and must be cut at P ; the shoot, 5, at §, and 
so forth. 

This is the foundation of the pruning of the vine, ac- 
cording to which the stem increases one node in each year, 
and only one cane is expected to grow in the place of an- 
other cane removed. 

After a series of years the stem has necessarily increased 
in height, and must be shortened. The method to accom- 
plish this object will be explained in that part of the work 
which treats of pruning practically applied. 

THE PRUNIXG OF THE GRAPE YIISTE. 

The necessity of pruning has been explained in the pre- 
ceding chapter. We wish now to show the practical 
application of it in a vine fully grown, and occupying the 
whole space allotted to it. This is the most frequent of 
all cases, because it takes only a few years to train a vine ; 
it will last, when properly managed, for centuries. The 
propagation and management of young vines will be 
treated of in another jolace. 

There is a classical work on the j^runing of the vine by 
J. S. Kecht, the seventh edition of which was issued in 
1853. As Kecht's method is based on the nature of the 
vine itself, no improvement on it has been made in any of 
the more recent horticultural books. If we follow his di- 
rections as laid down in the book, we are easily convinced 
of the correctness of his teachings, and success is certain. 
The experience of many j^ears has proved the advantages 
derived from Kecht's method. 

In pruning a grape vine, we wish to accomj^lish two 
object, viz. : 

1. To obtain for the current year as much fruit as pos- 
sible. 

2 



26 THE GRAPE VINE. 

2. To produce vigorous canes for bearing the next year. 

The first pruning of the vine ought to be done in the fall, 
commencing in the middle of ISTovember, after the fall of 
the leaf; it may be continued during the winter when the 
weather is favorable. The advantages of fall pruning are 
very great. It is easier to manage a pruned vine during 
the winter than an unpruned one ; no sap is lost in the 
next spring by bleeding; the pieces cut oflf can be buried 
in a compost heap and converted into manure. 

The pruning of the vine is modified by the system of 
training preferred. By this we understand the manner in 
which the vine is to be extended. The vine is either 
trained on Avails, (trellis,) or on j^oles, (common vineyard 
traming,) or on wires, Avhich may be stretched high or low. 

For each of these modes of training, the pruning is a 
little difierent, but not much, as the principle remains the 
same. 

TRAINING ON TRELLISES. 

In order to prune a grape vine, trained to a trellis, it is 
necessary to loosen the vine by cutting the osiers, or other 
material with which it was tied, either with a knife or gar- 
den shears. Then the canes for bearing must be selected, 
and also those which are to be spurred for the production 
of new canes. The strongest are chosen for bearing ; they 
must be entirely brown, having been changed from 
shoots to canes during the summer and fall just passed. 
Their tops are generally not ripened, and are consequently 
green. The green part must be entirely cut away, because 
it would be killed in the winter. The cane is so much 
shortened that it reaches, in the position in which it is to 
be tied, about one-third to the top of the Avhole trellis. 
One-third must remain unoccupied, because it is required 
for tying the shoot to it that pushes from, the last eye of the 
cane. If we suppose that the trellis is from six to seven 
feet high, and that six feet of its length on each side is 



THE GRAPE VINE. 27 

to be occiii3ied by the vine, the canes in the middle are 
pruned to the length of four feet, those on each side 
sj^reading, in the shape of a fan, to the length of five or 
six feet. Therefore from eight to fourteen buds will re- 
main on each cane, promising an abundant crop. Such 
canes are to be preferred as grow lowest on the stem. JS'o 
old wood ought to be found beyond the middle of the 
height of the trellis. After the selection and pruning of 
the canes, the stem, (that is, the cane which bore fruit in 
the preceding summer and fall,) is cut off immediately 
above the place where the new canes grow ; tlie canes 
themselves must be cut off an inch above the bud, as, if 
cut close, this would be apt to dry up. 

It is true that a cane having from ten to fourteen buds 
can bear from twenty to thirty clusters ; yet it is not 
probable that it will make strong shoots. To remedy 
this, some weaker canes are selected in the fall for the 
production of bearing canes, by cutting them back to two 
buds each. A cane so pruned is called a spur. 

This spur receives, when the vine grows, as much sap 
as a cane having ten or twelve buds ; but as this sap 
serves for the development and pushing of only two buds, 
the shoots proceeding from them are very vigorous and of 
strong growth. Each of the two shoots may bear from 
four to six clusters, yet the spur is not intended for bear- 
ing. If the blossoms on them are removed, the cane 
growing from the spur will be so much the stronger. 
Should both buds of the spur be equally vigorous and 
strong, they may be left ; but if they are feeble, one is to 
be removed, which makes the remaining shoot very much 
stronger. The place for the spuro ought to he as low as 
possible on the stem, so that the canes proceeding from 
them may bear fruit along the whole height of the trellis. 

Also wood buds, pushing from the old wood, may be 
cut to spurs in the fall. The shoots pushing from the 
spurs in the following spring must not be interfered with/ 



28 THE GEAPE YIXE. 

they must he permitted to grow undisturhed. Also, all 
weaker canes not intended for bearing, and growing very 
low on the stem, must be cut back to spurs of two buds 
each. Should there be too many shoots in the next 
year to serve as canes, some of them are pinched in, and 
may be permitted to bear fruit. 

A little higher up on the stem, some canes are pruned 
to four or five eyes. Canes so pruned are called lo7ig 
spurs. They bear fruit, but not so much as the canes, and 
are therefore able to produce stronger canes. In this Avay 
the vine is compelled to produce strong bearing canes all 
over, which is the condition of fruitfulness every year. So 
the stem is also kept within certain bounds. If these pre- 
cautionary measures are neglected, the grape vine may 
bear for one year a large quantity of fruit ; the next year 
there will be many, but feeble, canes, all growing high up 
on the stem. The height of the stem will have considera- 
bly increaed, and will show no fruit below. 

Should the trellis be much higher than twelve or sixteen 
feet, as on walls of houses or barns, it is impossible to 
reach this height with a single cane. In this case a part of 
the stem is carried up to half the height of the trellis, and 
canes are grown from it to cover the upper part of the 
trellis ; the lower part is covered with canes proceeding, 
near the bottom, from side branches of the stem, which 
are then treated exactly as described above. It is almost 
impossible to keep vines, trained on such trelHses, in order, 
because it is impracticable, by means of a ladder, to j^er- 
form the labor needed by the vine. 

[It is a much better plan to plant more than one vine, 
when, for instance, the first is trained low, the second high, 
the third low again, and so on alternately. — Remarh of 
the Translator.'] 

The pruning of a vine trained to a post is much simpler. 
The best developed canes are pruned to eight or ten buds, 
and also some of the lower ones to spurs. The manner of 



THE GEAPE VINE. 29 

tying the canes, either more horizontally, or at certain 
angles to the horizon, as well as the length to which they 
are pruned, varies very much in all regions where vines are 
grown. None of those methods can be considered as ab- 
solutely the best ; for each of them is recommended as the 
best in the region where it is practised. Some do not 
wish to grow many clusters, in order to obtain fruit of the 
highest character; others prune their canes long, to obtain 
a large number of bunches. Aside from the different 
opinions and views of the people, the character of the soil 
exerts so powerful an influence that the little changes de- 
manded by each locality are gradually understood by those 
inhabitants of it who cultivate the vine. The principles 
of pruning are the same for every mode of training : the 
most beautiful and strongest canes are selected for hear- 
ing^ while the weaker canes are^ by short priming, forced 
to produce strong shoots. 

If, however, in consequence of an unfavorable spring, 
no blossoms appear, or if they have perished by late frosts, 
rains and other accidents, the first of the ends in grape 
culture, namely, to grow clusters for the current, and canes 
for the following year, cannot be accomplished, so that tlie 
second must be kept in view exclusively. In this case the 
canes that had been grown for fruiting are pruned back 
to two eyes, and the shoots proceeding from them are per- 
mitted to grow undisturbed. In like manner, all shoots 
of a cane without fruit may be removed, so that only one 
leaf near the bud remains. The bunches, as well as the 
shoots intended for canes, will in this way be much better 
developed. There exists a mutual action and re-action 
between the canes and the leaf and the root and the stem. 
A strong root is able to produce many canes and rich fo- 
liage, which latter tends in its turn to enlarge the stem 
and' the root. All carbonaceous formations in the vine, as 
well as in every other plant, are the result of the fact that 
the leaves, under the influence of heat and light, decom- 



80 THE geApe vine. 

pose carbonic acid, set oxygen free, and deposit carbon in 
connection with the elements of the water for the produc- 
tion of organic matter in the vine. 

The so-called hydrates of carbon are grape sugar, starch, 
wood fibre, and also the other formations like tartaric acid ; 
the green of the leaves, oil, and so forth, originate under 
the same conditions. 

If there are many leaves on the vine, large quantities of 
oxygen are given ofi" to the air, and so corresponding quan- 
tities of grape sugar and wood fibre are formed. . Hence it 
follows that the foliage must be ample to develop many 
bunches, the number of which is different every year ; the 
foliage is needed to nourish the fruity and to render it 
sweet. If, for the sake of experiment, all the leaves of a 
cane are removed, the berries and clusters growing on it 
remain small, sour and hard, and the wood does not ripen. 
Rich foliage tends to ripen the fruit as well as the wood. 

The growth of the wood and of the root depends, there- 
fore, chiefly on the quantity of the leaves, especially when 
the leaves have not to furnish nourishment. From this 
circumstance results the practical rule not to remove any 
leaves., if we wish to make the vine grow strong. Al- 
though the rich^iess and sweetness of the fruit depend on 
the foliage^ yet this is also owing to the extent and ac- 
tivity of the root. A young vine, with a comparatively 
small and weak root, can furnish sap for a small number of 
clusters only, even if all the leaves remain on it. The 
extent and power of the root increases every year, so that 
the vine will bear and ripen larger quantities of clusters 
annually. If the proportion of the root, the foliage and 
the fruit be right, a large and old vine will bear several 
thousand of clusters, which will be as mature and sweet 
as twelve or twenty would be on a small vine, the root of 
which is yet feeble. 

The nourishment is taken by the root and conducted to 
the plant. It is elaborated in the leaf, where oxygen is 



THE GRAPE VIXE. 31 

eliminated, and where the inorganic carbonic acid is con- 
verted into an organic compound ; then the nourishment is 
deposited and collected in the berry. The true growth of 
the vine lies, therefore, in the surface of the leaves dis- 
played in the sunlight, while the clusters on a vine which 
is growing naturally are protected from the direct rays of 
the sun. 

It is sufficient when the sun shines on the leaves, and 
the clusters are growing in diffused light. This is the 
true and natural condition. It is now not difficult to un- 
derstand how great a mistake is made when the leaf, grow- 
ing near a cluster, is removed for the purpose of admit- 
ting the rays of the sun directly to the cluster. No sugar 
can be formed in the berry, because no oxygen can be 
eliminated by it ; the berry only collects the sugar, or it 
prepares it from an organic substance formed by the leaf. 
The berry is apt to be injured by the direct rays of the 
sun during the hot days of summer, (sunstroke). 

The development of the vine may, therefore, take place 
within limits that may either be very small or very large. 
In the steep vineyards of the Moselle, where vegetable 
mould and loam are wanting, so that frequently the neces- 
sary soil must be carried up in baskets from the valley, a 
vine cannot gjrow to a larsje extent. 

The canes are as thin as a lead pencil ; the stem is as 
thick as a finger ; the clusters are few, but excellent, pro- 
vided there is the right proportion between the foliage and 
the fruit. The circumstance that the vines are planted 
very near each other, and that the soil is very shallow, 
prevents the extension of the root, so that the whole plant 
is crippled during its term of life. It cannot, however, 
be otherwise under the existing circumstances. 

A vine, growing in rich garden soil, produces canes 
twenty feet long, studded with from sixty to eighty nodes 
each. A vine, four years old, can, in such soil, bear four 
hundred clusters. In the year 1826, Kecht counted on a 



32 THE GRAPE VINE. 

vine of the Frueh-Leipziger 4,500 clusters ; in other years, 
generally from two to three thousand. This was at Berlin, 
the capital of Prussia. The celebrated Hampton Court 
vine, near London, planted by Cardinal Wolsey, and still 
growing in a large glass house, bears every year more than 
a thousand excellent clusters. 

TREATMENT OF THE VINE IN THE SUMMER. 

When the vine is pruned before winter, it is not tied, 
but permitted to swing in the air, or to lie on the ground. 
It suffers less from the cold by being moved by the air, 
than when it is fixed to a certain place where it must lose 
a great deal of heat by radiation. It is a well known fact 
that solid bodies lose, in clear nights, much more than 
aeriform bodies ; consequently the vine will be colder by 
radiation than the surrounding air. If it moves freely in 
the air, it comes constantly into contact with new strata 
of air which are warmer than itself, and is, in this way, 
protected fi-om being killed by the frost. The vine suffers 
from the frost when the thermometer is about at zero, 
[though many American varieties can stand much more 
cold. — Translator.'] In Western Germany, on the Rhine, 
the Moselle and the Saar, the vines are left on the ground 
in winter ; in the east of Germany, they must be covered 
with soil, to protect them against being killdd by the frost. 
Every one has, in this resj^ect, to do what the climate of 
the country requires. 

During the whole winter, changes are constantly going 
on in the vine. Should it come to a stand still, the jjlant 
must die. These changes take place in accordance with 
the warmth of the winter, so that in mild winters the 
eyes begin to swell in January and February. That the 
vine is dormant in winter, shows that it belongs to the tem- 
perate zone. It is not the cold which causes this dormant 
condition, but the natural desire for rest, to pre^^are itself 



THE GKAPE VINE. 33 

for new exertions in the next year. In the island of Ma- 
deira, f. i., the vine drops its leaves in October, after 
it has ripened its fruit, and remains dormant during the 
winter months, the warmth of which is equal to that of 
our summers. Surrounded by evergreen native plants, 
the vine is there as leafless as with us ; it remains in this 
dormant condition for one hundred and sixty days, until it 
awakens in March to commence life anew. 

As soon as the heavy frosts are over, which is, with us, 
(on the Rhine) after the middle of February, the vine 
may be tied to its post or trellis. Usually this is done a 
little later, i. e., in the course of March, and in the first 
part of April. As at the time of tying, some little prun- 
ing will frequently take place, it is advisable to commence 
it as early as possible, so that the wounds may dry up 
again, and may not bleed afterwards. The remaining 
canes are equally distributed all over the trellis, to cover 
the space, and are tied with osiers or bast matting. The 
necessary manipulations can be easily learned from any 
gardener or vineyardist ; without this, they are so obvious 
in themselves that a trial will be all that is needed to un- 
derstand them. 

The eyes of the vines commence pushing and are devel- 
oped into green shoots, on which, |i-omthe middle of April 
to the middle of May, the blossoms appear, but only as 
blossom buds. [The blossom buds are called, in German, 
Schei7ie or Gescheine, for which expressions the English 
language has as yet no correspondmg words. — Tra7islator.'] 
We know from the process of the development of the 
vine, that from each eye a shoot will push, and that we 
need every year the same number of canes. If all the 
shoots should be sufiered to grow, the vines would have in 
the next year as many canes as there were eyes in the pre- 
ceding year ; the vine would, in the summer, be nothing 
but a confused mass of wood and leaves. To prevent this, 
the pushing shoots are in a certain manner either ruhhed 
2* 



34 THE GRAPE VINE 

off ov pinahed. In these operations two objects are kept 
in view, viz. : to obtain the best possible fruit, and to de- 
velop only as many canes as are actually on the vine. The 
honor of the discovery of the method to accomplish this is 
also due to Kecht ; in it, his teachings have reached their 
culminating point. According to the opinion of all those 
who understand viticulture, nothing that is either better, 
or even as good, has been brought to light ; the method is 
so simple, and in accordance with the laws of nature, that 
we may consider it, without hesitation, perfect. 

We 'do not wish to grow more canes than the vine is 
bearing. It follows that only one eye on each cane must 
be used for a new one. The eye to he used for a cane 
must he necessarily the lowermost. The sap has a strong 
upward tendency, and causes the uppermost canes to grow 
strongest ; the growth of the shoots proceeding from the 
higher part of the cane must, therefore, be restrained. On 
them the clusters, in which the object of growing the 
vine centers, are produced. The restriction of the upper 
shoots must be so managed as to conduce to the best 
growth of the clusters. The two following rules unite 
everything that is needed : 

1. The lowermost eye on each cane must he suffered to 
grow at will without hei^g checked or interfered with. 

2. The tops of the shoots, pushing from all other eyes, 
are pinched two leaves above the uppermost hunch, not 
counting the leaf near the hunch. 

These golden rules contain a wisdom which cannot be 
valued too highly. The shoot, being pinched, cannot con- 
tinue growing ; consequently there will be an abundance 
of sap for the nourishment of the clusters. The tv.'o 
leaves are needed, and sufficient to make the grapes sweet. 
As the upper eyes of the shoot cannot push, the eye of 
the lowermost node grows the more vigorously, and makes 
a strong cane for the next year. The spurs, may they be 
short or long, are likewise intended for strong canes, hence 



THE GRAPE VIXE. 35 

it follows that one shoot, if possible the lowermost on 
each cane, must not be pinched, but must grow undis- 
turbed to the end of the year, when it is to be pruned as 
a cane. 

The first pinching of the vine may be performed before 
it blossoms, as soon as the buds are distinctly visible. 
The earlier the vine is pinched, the less nourishing sub- 
stance it loses. 

However easy the above rules appear to be, yet their 
practical application is not quite so easy. There are one 
or two eyes in the axil of the foot stalk on the green 
shoot ; those eyes which are green and soft, ought also to 
he removed. This can easily be accomplished with the 
nail of a finger or the thumb ; for they push, if not re- 
moved, and absorb a part of the sap, destined to nourish 
the bunch, and lessen the vigor of the lowermost eye of 
the cane which is intended for a cane the next year. It is 
therefore advisable to perform these two operations simul- 
taneously; after the top of the shoot has been pinched 
two leaves above the uppermost bunch, all eyes in the 
sinuses of the foot stalks of the leaves must be destroyed ; 
only the lowermost shoot must be left to grow at will. 
Pinching, during the time of blossoming, is not to be re- 
commended, because the blossoms are easily injured. 

There exists no other reason for it, although some think 
it is indispensable not to do anything to the vine during 
the time of blossoming, as though during tliat time it were 
more sensitive to bear external influences than at any 
other. I have also, during blossoming time, carefully 
pinched shoots, and have never found any difierence from 
what it would have been, or was, when it was performed 
before or after that time. 

After blossoming, the vine grows more vigorously. The 
eyes, remaining on the shoots, push and form little shoots, 
which are called laterals. 

In the axil of the leaf stalk there are always at least 



36 THE GEAPE VINE. 

two eyes, of Avhicli alternately the left, the next time the 
right eye pushes and forms a lateral. If the laterals that 
have been produced are removed, the other eye soon com- 
mences pushmg ; if the lateral of the second eye is rubbed 
off, a third dormant eye is formed, etc. This shows that 
the laterals perform an important service in regard to the 
dormant eyes. As long as the lateral is growing, the 
eye at the base of it remains dormant ; if it is removed, it 
receives an abundance of sap and pushes. This is the 
reason why no laterals on the shoot intended for a cane^ 
that is, on the loioermost shoot, should he ruhhed off. 

Although soon after the removal of the shoot a new eye 
is formed, yet this takes place later and later, and tbe eye 
does not last so long as that which has pushed in the 
spring, and, therefore, in the course of the summer, is not 
fully developed for producing a blossom. It is one of the 
commonest mistakes made by vintners to remove these 
laterals without any discrimination, because they consider 
them to be robbers of strength. The laterals of the shoot 
to be preserved for a cane are destined to receive the sap 
and preserve the eye, growing at its base in its dormant 
state. 

The laterals continue pusliingfrom the canes during the 
Avhole summer ; it is, therefore, necessary to have a certain 
and infallible criterion, in going over a vine, to know 
which laterals must be removed, and which must remain. 
This is contained in the folio wins- rule : 

3. It is useful to remove the laterals of the shoots that 
have been pinched ; they must remain on the shoot not 
pinched, i. e., on the lowermost. 

The remaining leaves of a vine, regularly pinched, grow 
large and very solid in a short time, and the lowest shoots 
not pinched grow with great vigor. The pinched shoots 
soon attain the size, beyond which they cannot increase in 
length, as they cannot grow at the top, and the laterals are 
removed as soon as they appear. The shoots, on the con- 



THE GEAPE VINE. 67 

trary, not pinched or interfered with, because intended for 
bearing the next spring, grow in the course of the sum- 
mer from eight to ten, and sometimes even twenty feet 
long. This does not create any diflSculty when the vines 
are grown on treUises, because there is room enough to 
arrange and tie them. If the strips of the trellis are in a 
vertical position, projecting above, those shoots are carried 
behind them, where they are permitted to grow. If the 
trellises are made of horizontal wires, the shoots in ques- 
tion are tied to the uppermost, on which they are suffered 
to grow in a horizontal position. In vineyards where 
posts are used, tlie shoots are tied to them as far as their 
length goes ; the upper ends of the shoots swdng either in 
the air or they are tied to the post of the next vine. I 
anticipate that I shall get in conflict with many practical 
vignerons who are in the habit of cutting off the shoots 
in August as far as they think proper, to re-establish order 
and to obviate and further confusion. This practice, how- 
ever, is altogether erroneous, because, after the shoots in- 
tended for canes have been shortened, the dormant eyes 
commence pushing ; so a part of the eyes desthied to bear 
the next year is lost, and the crop is lessened. Those la- 
terals, although developed so late, grow so large that they 
must be pinched again. A shoot not pinched is some- 
times difficult to manage on account of its length, but 
those pinched, much more so, on account of the number of 
their laterals. If the principle is correct that the shoots 
intended for canes must not be injured, it is necessary to 
provide means for their support. A vine may be groicn 
as large or as small as it is convenient; vet the length 
of the shoots destined to hear next year cannot he arhi- 
trarily reduced to a certain measure. 

Even in the smallest vine they wdll be from «x to eigh- 
teen feet long, and they must, at all events, be provided for 
without shortening them. When I was riding, in the fall 
of 1862, through the Rheingau, I saw the vines kept 



38 THE GEAPE VINE. 

neatly about four feet high; the shoots, however, which 
were to hear uext year, had produced many Literals. The 
yellowish-green color of the young shoots shows this ; they 
have not been long enough exposed to the light to be as 
green as older leaves. These young laterals are especially 
liable to be attacked by the grape disease. In the second 
part of the summer, no such yellowish-green shoots must 
be found on the vine. It is true that they continue push- 
ing from the pinched shoots, but they must be rubbed off 
as soon as they appear ; they do not push from the shoots 
intended for bearing next year, if the error of shortening 
them is avoided. Where, in the second part of the summer, 
yellowish-green shoots aj^pear on a vine, regularly pinched, 
then they may be removed unhesitatingly. The confusion 
of a vine, treated in the right manner, Avill never be so great 
as many believe ; for the bearing canes are pinched and re- 
main small, and there are but a few long shoots destined 
for bearing the next year; their number is not much 
greater than that of the canes which bear fruit. It is 
judicious to grow a few more shoots than are to be 
retained for canes ; this has the advantage that the best 
may be selected in the fall, and that those that are weaker 
may be removed by pruning, in order to restore the proper 
number. The shade from these long shoots is of no ac- 
count, because the rays of the sun, falling upon the leaves 
of the long shoot, have the same" effect as if they had 
struck the vine itself It is necessary that the long shoot 
should vegetate and develop in the light of the sun, so 
that the cane itself, of course, must produce shade. If a 
part of a vine is in the shade from a shoot growing on a 
vine before it, the shoots of that vine are exposed to the 
full rays of the sun, and it receives from above the light in- 
tercepted from below by the vine before it. In planting 
grape vines on a plain, or on a gentle declivity, shade can- 
not be avoided ; if one part of a vine is entitled to the sun, 
the other must be contented to be, for a certain time, in 



THE GRAPE VIK'E. 39 

tlie shade. Moreover, only the leaf of the vine ought to 
be exposed to the full light of the sun, while the cluster 
is to develop and to ripen in the diffused light of day. 

GRAPE VINE PLANTATIONS. 

There is hardly any otber plant so well adapted to varia- 
tion of management as the grape vine. It is not our 
purpose to give here detailed directions concerning the ar- 
rangements of plantations, but only hints which may 
be useful, where a skillful gardener can be consulted. 
There exists no system of cultivating the vine which could 
be called absolutely the best for all regions ; the climate, 
as well as the nature of the variety of the vine, requires 
particular attention. 

All methods are successful to a certain degree, and there 
is none not considered the best by some. So much is true — 
that, of all plants, the vine gives the most ample reward 
for the care bestowed upon it, and that many a vacant 
spot of a garden may be used for planting a choice variety, 
so that it may be turned to account. 

VINES TRAINED ALONG THE GARDEN WALK. 

By this, low, horizontal branches of grape vines are 
meant, growing at considerable distances from each other, 
the canes and foliage of which do not occupy any useful 
space.* They are trained above edgings of box and 
strawberries without interfering with their growth. For 
this arrangement, such walks in the garden are selected as 
are parallel to the longest extent of it. The whole length 
is divided into equal parts of five or six feet each, and 
those places are marked by small sticks. Supposing the 
distance of six feet is preferred, a hole is dug at the first 
stick, or six feet from the end, then at the third, fifth, 
seventh, etc., skipping the equal numbers two, four, six, 
etc. If each vine sends out on the two opposite sides a 



40 THE GEAPE VINE. 

cane of six feet each, the whole length will be covered by 
the vine, and, therefore, the two last vines are planted six 
feet from the end or beginning. A vine is now planted, 
either a cutting or a root, in each hole, in a straight line 
along the margin of the walk ; the roots mnst be so ar- 
ranged and so disposed, that they must grow into the beds 
where they find better soil and can be manured. They 
are protected by sticks against injury from footsteps, and 
are watered during the summer, if necessary. In the fall, 
each young vine is cut down to two eyes, from which 
two shoots are suffered to grow the next year. As they 
do not bear, they may be feid on the ground behind the 
edgings. In the third year, a strong iron wire, at least 
one-twelfth of an inch in diameter, is stretched between 
the first and the last post ; the wire is supported by a thin 
post near each vine. The wire ought to be stretched at 
the height of eighteen or twenty inches above the ground. 
In this way, the bed remains open to the view, and the edg- 
ing plants, growing under the canes, are not injured, as they 
receive sufficient light. The two posts at the extreme ends 
ought to be made of oak wood three inches square ; their 
ends ought to be also square, not round. If they are three 
and a half feet long, each two feet will be ^/^, and a foot and 
a half above the ground. They are strong enough to bear 
the stress of the wire. !N"ear the upper end each of the 
two posts receives towards the middle a strong iron hook, 
with a screw cut at its end ; it is screwed into the pcist, so 
that the oiDcning of the hook is on the upper side. A hole 
of a quarter of an inch in diameter is bored through the 
other post, through which a strong piece of iron wire is 
put, being bent in the form of a hook on the inside, and 
having a screw with a four-cornered nut on the outside. 
The small posts, set to each vine along the whole side of 
the walk, are also of oak, and if they are a foot and a half 
deep in the soil, they will have strength enough. In order 
to stretch the wire, an eye is made on one of its ends, 



THE GEAPE VINE. 41 

through which the hook passes ; it is then hooked into the 
wire of the second end post, which terminates in a screw, 
so that it touches the tops of the intermediate small posts. 
Then it is stretched by means of the sci-ew and nut as 
much as possible. The wire is kept in position on the tops 
of the intermediate posts by small staples or rings with 
wood screws. If the stress or the heat lengthens the wire, 
it is stretched again by turning the nut of the screw. 
Even without such an apparatus, the wire maybe stretched 
by wooden wedges and stones driven into the soil by the 
posts, in order to straighten them. As the wire is short- 
ened by the cold of the winter, it is advisable to loosen it 
a little, and to stretch it again when the vines are tied up 
in the next spring. 

Others recommend to use strips of wood instead of 
wire ; they must be nailed on the tops of the posts. Strips 
are less durable and more expensive than wires ; for the 
place where they are nailed is apt to rot, owing to the 
oxide of iron produced by the rusting nail ; and if the 
strip breaks there, and is an inch too short, it must be re- 
placed by a new one. Wires have httle body, and the 
tying to a wire is easier than to a thick, clumsy strip. 
The durability of the wires is increased by giving them a 
coat of oil paint. The color is given by mixing it with 
pure red lead. This color shows the place of the wire, and 
prevents occasional visitors from injuring themselves in 
stepping over a place not yet filled with canes of the vine. 
The canes, growing in the second year, are tied in the 
third, riorht and left to the wire, and are suffered to bear. 
It is necessary to pinch and remove shoots, if this method 
of training is adopted. One of the lowest shoots on each 
side must not be pinched or interfered with, as it is to be 
used as a cane forbearing the next year ; all other bearing 
shoots, when pinched just beyond the second leaf above 
the last cluster, cannot grow longer. The shoots for canes 



42 THE GEAPE VINE. 

are tied to the same wire, but below it, wMch compels 
them to lengthen in a straight line. 

The canes which have borne fruit are cut off in the next 
autumn ; the new canes are pruned to twelve or fourteen 
buds, and also some spurs are provided for, so that it is 
possible, after the lapse of some years, to shorten the stem 
and to go back again, nearer to the first starting point. 
It is very easy always to have two strong canes covering, 
with the exception of the extremities, the intervals of 
twelve feet of the wire, except at the end. That space is 
needed for tying the shoots of the uppermost buds. If a 
post, seven feet high, is set to each vine, two additional 
fruiting canes, as well as the shoots for canes, may be tied 
to it ; so the crop may be very much increased. 

On such a cordon, eight hundred feet long, I have grown, 
in the fourth year after planting, so many bunches, that I 
made from them one-half awme (30 gallons) of excellent, 
red wine, without using a single square foot of the surface 
of the garden for it. 

Only here and there some plants of the box, which 
formed the eds-ino;, were taken out to make room for the 
vines. The rays of the sun, intercepted by the vines, 
would have fallen during one-half of the day upon the 
walks, during the other upon the box and other worthless 
plants, which attained, however, their perfect develop- 
ment. The variety was of the early Burgundy variety. 

TRELLISES ON WALLS. 

A wall, exposed to the sun during one-half of the day, 
towards the east, south or west, or intermediate between 
them, may be used for a trellis. A southern or south- 
westerly is the best ; early ripening sorts succeed also when 
exposed to the east or west, provided the climate is not 
unfavorable. 

The walls for trellises are generally whitewashed, be- 
cause it is cheapest. Yet it is better to add something to 



NHE GEAPE VINE. 43 

it that makes the wash darker, to absorb more heat. For 
this purpose, any brown coloring matter, mixed with white- 
wash, will answer to make a dark-colored wall. Without 
the mixture of whitewash, the pulverized coloring matter 
is washed off by the rain from the walls. Umber and 
lampblack may be used, yet Manganese is much to be 
preferred. 

A wall, covered with blue slate, absorbs the greatest 
amount of heat ; the cheapest kind of slate or refuse of 
slate answers a very good purpose. Bkie slate, exposed 
to the full sun, is heated to fifty to fifty-five degrees 
Reaum. (to 145 o.r 156° Fahr.) The wall, not shaded by 
the foliage, is heated by the rays of the sun, and imparts 
warmth to the currents of rising air, which give off their 
warmth to the vine. 

A great amount of heat is accumulated in the wall from 
the sun, the effect of wliich is felt even at night. In pass- 
ing by a wall, shone upon by the sun during the day, af- 
ter sunset the undulations of the warmth are distinctly 
felt in the face. This advantage of being heated for a 
longer time can be given to the vines by painting the wall 
dark. Wire trellises are now preferred to wooden ones, 
not only on account of their durability, but also on ac- 
count of their greater cheapness. They can, besides, be 
erected and arranged in a very short time. The wire 
must be at least one-twelfth of an inch thick, and annealed, 
so that it may be bent without breaking. It is be'st to 
stretch the wire in a horizontal direction. In this case, 
there are not many places where the vine is to be tied, nor 
can a vine which has been tied, slide down. A trellis five 
or six feet high requires but three or four wires, the lowest, 
a foot from the ground, the others, in distances of sixteen 
inches from each other. Strong pieces of iron are fast- 
ened to the extreme ends of the wall, in order to stretch 
the wire ; every twelve feet, the wire must be passed 
through a thinner piece of iron, in order to keep it in 



44 THE GEAPE VIXE. 

place. It is necessary to mark first the places at the ex- 
treme ends with a cross, the middle of which, where the 
two lines intercept each other, indicates the place where 
the iron has to be fixed. As such a trellis lasts a long 
time, it is advisable to measure the distance with a rule, 
carefully. After the strong pieces of iron at the two ends 
of the Avail have been fastened, the whole length is divid- 
ed into equal parts of ten or twelve feet each, and there a 
perpendicular line is made with a piece of charcoal or a 
carpenter's lead pencil. Then a piece of cord or twine is 
stretched between the two strong irons, which crosses the 
black lines at right angles ; the j^laces where the cord 
crosses the black lines are 'to be marked red. Here the 
thinner irons are fastened, which are to serve to keep the 
wire in place. To drive a j^ointed iron in mortar or brick 
walls is easy enough, but stone w^alls cause a great deal 
more trouble. Frequently it is necessary to try to the 
right and left, till a place is found w^here two stones are 
put together ; for it is unpossible to penetrate into the 
stones themselves. In order not to spoil many points of 
the pieces of soft iron, a four-cornered punch of steel, 
which has been tempered blue, and has a handle, is used. 
Should the hole become too large by this oj^eration, a piece 
of pine Avood is driven into it wdth a hammer, and then 
the iron is driven into the pine wood. It is left to the 
judgment of the person who makes the trellis, whether he 
will make use of an apparatus to stretch the wires by 
means of screws and nuts. The wires receive a coat of red 
paint ; they last, so painted, much longer, and are ahvays 
visible. 

A wire trellis well arranged and firm will likely last 
longer than the hfe of him who has made it. 

FREE TRELLISES. 

It is much more profitable and adA^antageous to erect 
grape trellises on gentle declivities than to plant smgie 



THE GRAPE VINE. 45 

vines. The number of posts required is mucli less, and 
the greater extent of the root in vines growing strong 
will involve less expense, and give a greater produce. 
A vine trained on a trellis ten or twelve feet wide, and 
four or four and a half feet high, bears as many clusters 
as eight or ten vineyard vines trained to posts. Also the 
labor of pruning, tying ^nd manuring is much simpler and 
easier than in a larorer number of sino^le vines. 

As regards the direction of the trellises, practical men 
differ. Kecht advises the direction from north to south, 
that is, parallel to the meridian. This arrangement has 
the disadvantage that in the hottest part of the day, the 
sun shines into the spaces between the rows, heating the 
ground, while the rows are in their own shade. It is, how- 
ever, much more important that the vine should be 
warmed than the ground. I have, therefore, chosen just 
the opposite direction, that is, from east to west, in a plan- 
tation of vines. As the line of the rows is a little inclined 
towards the meridian, it so happens that the sun at one 
o'clock, p. ra., shines vertically upon the rows. Conse- 
quently my plantation enjoys the sun in the following 
manner : Before seven o'clock, a. m., the sun shines on 
the back part of the trellises ; at seven o'clock it shines 
between the rows from east ; from seven o'clock, a. m., 
till seven o'clock, p. m., the front part of the trelhs enjoys 
the sunshine ; at seven o'clock, p. m., the rays of the sun 
strike the spaces between the rows, and after seven o'clock 
the back part of the trellises agam. 

In the hottest part of the day, from ten o'clock, a. m., 
till three o'clock, p. m., the sun is almost vertical above 
the rows, and they are then in the condition of trellises 
made on walls with a southern exposure, which exposure 
has always been preferred to all others. In the hottest 
part of the day, the ground is shaded so that it does not 
dry so rapidly. ^ly aim was to intercept all the rays of 
the sun, that would fall upon that piece of ground, by the 



4:6 THE GEAPE VINE. 

plant itself, as this would insure the best success. It is 
true that I have no experience yet, but the arrange- 
ment was planned with so much care, that I am confident 
of a favorable result. A little deviation from this direc- 
tion may be desirable if the natural condition of the situa- 
tion of the ground is difierent. Should it be so situated 
as to receive the shadow from a near mountain in the af- 
ternoon, it will be advantageous to turn the whole ar- 
rangement a little eastward, and plant the rows so that 
the sun shines into them in the morning and in the even- 
ing at five o'clock ; it will then, at eleven a. m., be verti- 
cally above them. 

If the ground lies open in all directions, it is better to 
deviate a little towards the west, because the afternoon is 
always hotter than the forenoon. If the shadow of a 
mountain falls from the east upon the plantation, it maybe 
so arranged that it has the sun vertical at two o'clock, p. 
m., but always so that the sun does not shine into the 
spaces between the rows during the hottest time of the 
day. 

If the direction is ascertained, the east and west sides 
of the ground are to be divided into equal parts, each four 
feet wide ; this is the distance of the trellises from each 
other. Then the north and south sides of the piece must 
be divided into parts of ten feet each. 

Each vine is to cover five feet of trellis on each side, 
consequently ten feet in the whole. No vines must, there- 
fore, be planted at the east and west terminus of the rows, 
but five feet from it. The last post, however, is to be 
planted at the terminus itself. Now the holes are dug in 
the places indicated, and the plants or cuttings are so 
placed that they are in straight lines ; this may easily be 
accomplished by another pei'son sighting at the last hole, 
marked by some prominent object, along a straight pole, 
placed horizontally. In the first year, the green shoots may 
lie and grow on the ground ; in the second, they may be tied 



THE GEAPE VINE. 47 

to sticks, and the S23aces between the rows may be used 
for cultivating vegetables. In the third year, the trellis 
must be erected. For this purpose strong posts, three 
inches square, the points of which are four cornered, are 
driven into the ground at the east and west side of the 
rows ; if they are two and a half feet in the ground, and 
five feet above it, they are long enough. Between them, 
thinner posts two inches square, but equally high as the 
larger ones, are driven into the ground near every vine, 
i. e., in distances of ten feet from each other to support 
the wires ; the two last rows east and west may, of course, 
be skipped. Instead of oaken posts, which are expensive, 
round, pine saplings may be used, but they must be im- 
jjregnated with sulphate of copper. This can be done by 
dissolving ten or twelve pounds of sulphate of copper in 
an old hogshead, by pouring hot water on it, stirring it 
frequently. Ten or twelve posts are put in it, and remain 
five or six days, when they are to be replaced by 
others, while the first set is dried. So much water is to 
be added that the hogshead with the posts in it is full. 
As long as sulj^hate of copper remains undissolved at the 
bottom, the absorbed or evaporated water must be re- 
plenished. Of all tlie materials used for impregnating 
wood to make it durable, (kyanizing,) sulphate of copper 
is one of the cheapest and most effective. 

To give a good coat of coal tar to the part impregnated, 
after the posts are dry, will protect them still more effec- 
tually. 

To stretch the wire, strong conical pieces of iron may 
be used, similar to those used for stretching piano strings. 
They must be made to fit holes bored with a tapering bit, 
flattened at the top, and pierced with a hol6. The iron 
must be driven into the hole, so that it bears the stress by 
friction alone. The force applied in stretching is so great 
that the posts may yield and turn a little. To prevent 



48 THE GKAPE VINE. 

this, the lowest wire is fastened to the front part (south 
side) of the post, the second to the back side 

The lowest wire is to be stretched about a foot from the 
ground; the others at distances from twelve to sixteen 
inches. Four wires will make a trellis five feet high. 

We will now compare such an arrangement with a vine- 
yard of single vines trained to poles. Supposing the piece 
of ground is eighty feet square, there will be twenty-one 
trellises, if the rows are four feet distant from each other. 
As each vine covers ten feet of the trellis, there will be 
eight vines in a row, consequently 168 in the whole. If a 
vineyard is planted of single vines three and a half feet 
apart each way, there will be 24 vines in a row, that is, 
576 vines in the whole. But if the vines are planted three 
feet apart each way, as it is usually done, there will be 
729 vines and posts. Although it is impossible to estimate 
the first cost of each of these arrangements, even approx- 
imately, as the prices of the posts, as well as those of the 
wire, vary very much ; yet trellised vines cover the whole 
space, and consequently bear much more abundantly than 
vines trained to posts, so that trellises are proper and more 
profitable than posts. 

VINES TRAINED TO TRELLISES. 

The bearing canes of vines, occupying a trellis ten or 
twelve- feet wide, or five or six feet high, may be grown in 
the middle, and evenly destributed over it, in the shape of 
a fan. From eight to ten canes are sufiicient, and they 
may be easily grown on a stem only a few feet in extent. 
Figure 5 represents such a vine, immediately after pruning 
in the fall. The canes which have borne have been al- 
ready removed, but the places of the cuts of the shoots, 
intended for canes, are only indicated. Also some spurs 
are to be seen at A and ^/ the shoots which will start from 



THE GRAPE VINE. 



49 



their buds will enable the vine dresser to reduce the heiglit 
of the stem in the following year. If only two branches 




Fig. 5. — VINE ON TliELLIS, PRUNED. 

of the stem are sliortened every year, the vine will always 
be kept within moderate bounds. 

J. P. BRONNER'S METHOD. 



According to this method all branches and shoots form 
right angles with the stems and canes from which they 
grow. [Whether Bronner had any knowledge of Speech- 
ly's and Hoare's plan I cannot tell, although it is hardly 
probable. — Translator.'] It is very similar to the methods 
adopted at Thomery and Fontainebleau, where nearly all 
the grapes are grown which are consumed at Paris. It is 
the special object of this method to cause an equal distri- 
bution of the sf^p, and to cover the whole trellis equally 
with bearing canes. It is adapted to free trellises, as well 
as to such as are arranged on walls. The form of the 
right angle is especially adapted to walls with windows 
and doors, as it is in conformity with them. The dis- 



50 THE GRAPE VINE. 

tances between the vines, trained to a free trellis, may be- 
eight or ten feet ; for those on walls, twelve feet and more. 

All strips and wires must run in a horizontal direction ; 
the unequal numbers, three, five, seven, etc., according to 
the height, must be preserved. The first w^ire must be 
stretched a foot from the ground ; the others at distances 
of sixteen inches each. 

A single trellis consists of three wires ; the two arms 
are tied to the lowest, and the bearing canes are tied in a 
vertical direction to the two next wires. A double trellis 
consists of five wires, and has horizontal arms tied to the 
first and third; the canes from the third wire are to be 
tied to the fourth and fifth. 

A trellis of three stories consists of seven wires, having 
arms on the first, third and fifth ; the canes of the fifth are 
to be tied to the sixth and seventh. We will now consider 
the management of a single trellis with tliree wires. Be- 
fore the vine can be trained to it, it must have attained 
vigor and a good size. 

A vine, two years old, when planted in the fall, must be 
cut down to one eye. The shoot, pushing from it, must 
not be interfered with ; it must gro^v undisturbed without 
pinching and stopping. This treatment will tend to j^ro- 
duce fibrous roots. 

In the following year, the vine is to be cut down to two 
buds, and should, in the next year, the two canes not be 
so thick as a child's finger, they 
must be cut down again, and 
treated as described. If a cutting 
is planted, it will require at least 
three years to make it strong 

„. „ enousfh for traininor. The third 

Fig. 6.— FIRST PRUNING. * ^ 

year of the growth of the young 
vine is, therefore, the first of the training. The two years' 
plant, having grow^n a year in the place assigned to it, 




THE GEArE VIXE. 



51 



makes in the summer a shoot to be pruned to two eyes in 
the fall. Figure 6. 

These two buds will produce two shoots in the follow- 
ing (the second) year, figure 7, which are left four feet 
long at pruning, and are changed to brown canes in the 
fall. There will be a great many buds on them, which 




Fig. 7.— SECOND PRUNING. 

will all push in the next spring. Four are selected on 
each arm, on the upper side of it, and distributed as equally 
as possible, (figure 8) ; the green shoots proceeding from 
them must be sufiered to grow undisturbed, while all the 
other buds must be rubbed ofi*. In this way, eight shoots 
will be obtained at nearly equal distances from each other, 
which are to be tied vertically to the two upper wires as 




Fi2:. 8. — PRUNING THE CANES. 



soon as they reach them. In the (third) fall the unequal 
numbers one and three of the shoots, being now canes, are 
pruned back to two buds, but the equal numbers two and 
four to three buds. Figure 8, 



THE GKAPE VINE. 



In the following (the fourth) year one shoot of the 
spurs, corresponding to the unequal numbers, and pruned 
to two eyes, is suffered to grow, but the other is rubbed 
off, because it was only left on account of the possibility 
of an accident to either of them. The shoots, pruned to 
the three buds, (the equal numbers,) will bear fruit ; they 
must be j^inched, as exj^lained, and no green shoot must 




Fig. 9.— FIRST TEAR OF FRUITING. 

be permitted to grow. The lowest buds of a c?ine being 
mostly wood buds, only the third buds will show blos- 
soms. Figure 9. 

This will not weaken the vine. In the fall of the fourth 
year, the canes of the unequal numbers are pruned to five 
or six eyes, as shown in figure 9, but the equal numbers, 
having borne fruit, to two eyes. 

In the following (the fifth) year, the canes of the une- 
qual numbers will bear along their w^hole length for the 
first time, figure 10, and each of the spurs of the equal 
numbers will produce a strong shoot for a bearing cane. 
Now everything remains in the same order, the equal and 
unequal numbers alternately bearing or making shoots. 
As the shoot on the strong arm retains but one bud in the 
year in which- this is to be grown for a cane, it receives 
an abundance of sap to make the canes strong ; and as the 



THE GRAPE VINE. 



53 



bearing canes on the same arms are not permitted to make 
a single shoot, tliey are supplied with ample nourishment 
for perfecting fruit. The functions of all the parts of the 
vine are performed alternately, so that ngne of them is 
taxed too heavily. 

If a double trellis is to be covered, more time is re- 
(juired ; the upper story must not be made to bear in the 
same year as the lower, but several years later, and so on. 

Eacli branch growing from an arm must be regarded as 
an independent vine, as it were, which is prolonged every 




SECOND YEAR OF FRUITING. 



year by a joint. The same means which are employed to 
reduce the height of a vine, must be used in managing a 
branch. The shoots pushing from wood eyes on the old 
wood must be suffered to grow ; they are pruned in the 
fall to spurs from which a shoot is grown to replace the 
old wood above it. 

It is frequently necessary to train a vine so that the bear- 
ing canes are at considerable distance from the ground, for 
instance, in streets and yards where j^eople are going to and 
fro. A cane, tied in a vertical direction to the wall, must- 
then be grown as a stem, witliout any branches whatever. 
Only the leaves are left, as long as it is an object to 



54 



THE GRAPE VINE. 



Strengthen it. If the iij^permost bud is permitted to 
push, the height is soon reached where the horizontal arms 
are desired, which have to rest on wires. It is important 
not to reach the height too soon. If four feet are added 
annually to the height of the stem, the arms and bearing 
canes will be so high that they cannot be touched by a 
pei-son on the ground. The arrangement just described, 
according to which bearing canes and shoots are grown 
alternately along the horizontal wires, is very well adajDted 





Fig. 11. — ARCADE TRELLIS. 

for this purpose. The height of the space between two 
windows of a house affords room enough for a second wire 
to tie the bearing canes to it. Vines may be planted in a 
great many other places to make them profitable, and to 
embellish them, as near the columns of a verandah, to 
cover the wire roof of a poultry yard, etc. If the princi- 
ples of the management are understood, their application 
to a given case is not difficult. Arbors, covered with 
grape vines, ought, under no circumstances, to be clothed 
with vines on both sides and above, because it will make 
the inside moist and shady, so that the grapes will not 



THE GRAPE VINE. OO 



ripen perfectly. An excellent arrangement for growing 
table grapes is the so-called arcade arhor, of which only 
the outlines can be given here. The framework, made of 
wood, is indicated, figure 14, by straight lines. 

Strong posts are set at equal distances from each other, 
of seven or eight feet, on which two trellis strips or wires, 
a foot and a half or two feet distant, are arranged. A 
vine is planted to each post, trained up to the first strip, 
and two arms from it are laid in along the strip. 

A height of seven or eight feet from the ground to the 
lowest strip is suflacient, according as it may be desirable 
to have the clusters higher or lower. Roses may be grown 
between the vines, especially if the stem has no branches. 
Such an arcade is, as it were, a vineyard in the air, w^hich 
makes little shade, so that the beds below^ may be used for 
growing anything on them ; it is beautiful to look at, and 
yields large crops. 

TIME REQUIRED FOR COVERING A TRELLIS. 

This is the plnce to discuss the question how soon the 
space of a certain trellis may be covered. If the canes are 
pruned long, that is, to sixteen or twenty buds, a vine 
may be made to cover a large space in a few years, but so 
rapid a process has disadvantages peculiar to itself. The 
extension of the vine ought always to correspond to the 
probable development of the roots. As they are in the 
ground, not exposed to view, judgment must be exercised 
by taking into consideration the length of the time, the 
fertility of the soil, and the vigor, the length, and the 
number of the growing shoots. If the process is hastened, 
and numerous shoots are left in the third and fourth years, 
the root cannot furnish as much nourishment as is needed. 
Many shoots push, show blossoms, and remain feeble, and 
in spite of regular pinching, the lowest eyes do not push 
vigorously. They yield many bunches of small size ; they 



1 / 



5G TUE GEAPE VINE. 

will not be sweet, and will ripen late. In the next fall 
the canes are changes to stems ; there are no strong shoots 
to make good canes in the fall. The shoots grow very 
high on the stem, which has grown to an enomious extent. 

This results from pruning a vine too long. In this case 
it is necessary to prune down to the old wood, in order to 
produce few, but more vigorous shoots. The crop, after a 
rich harvest, will be small; the advantage, gained by the 
prematurely hastened production, Avill be lost, and the 
development of the vine will be put back a year. If this 
circumstance is always kept in view, the temptation to ob- 
tain an abundant crop by long pruning will be easily re- 
sisted. 

It is only tlie question whether the covering by a vine 
of a space twelve feet wide shall be accomplished two or 
three years sooner. A slower procedure is much prefera- 
ble, as it makes both the stems and the roots stronger. 
Hov^ long a vine ought to he pruned^ that is, how many 
eyes ought to he left, is different in different kinds of 
grapes. The cluster 7iever grows from the first hud of 
the shoot, and not lower than from the fourth and fifth' 
likewise the lowest huds of the canes rarely hear fruit. 
There are hi7ids lohich hear fruit on shoots from the 
seventh and eight hud y there are others, like the Chasselas, 
v^hich hear grapes on the lowest shoots. 

Should tlie former be pruned below the seventh eye, 
then all the fruit bearing buds would be cut off, and only 
wood buds would be left ; consequently they would not 
bear fruit. This explains the experience of all vinyard- 
ists that close pruning produces much wood and little 
fruit, because the eyes, organized for blooming, are cut off. 
The opinion is pretty generally prevalent that if the sup- 
ply of sap should be too abundant, only wood and no 
fruit would be produced, and that the fruit only requires 
a very moderate supply of sap. This opinion is, no doubt, 
erroneous, as the fruit demands more nourishment than 



THE GRAPE VINE. 57 

any other part of the plant. This is sufficiently proven by 
the fact that an abundant crop prevents the vigorous de- 
velopment of the branches very much. 

The same takes pLace in regard to apples and pears. 
Too close pruning produces only Avood shoots, not, how- 
ever, on account of a super-abundance of sap, but because 
the fruit buds, which grow more towards the end of the 
shoots, have been cut off. On the other hand we find that 
our rule holds good, namely, that we have to prune very 
close, in order to obtain strong wood for the next year, 
even if the rich crops of the current year should be lost. 
It would be foolish to grow, as unskilled gardeners do, 
every year nothing but wood and very little fruit. A gen- 
eral Jcnowledge of the varieties, in regard to the eyes, 
which will he fruitful, is a sure guide. Varieties hearing 
higher up must he pruned to twelve or fifteen huds ; the 
lower hearing ones to six or eight eyes. To the former 
belong the varieties from the South, such as Malvasier and 
the like, often, also, kinds rij^ening late ; those that ripen 
early, and are accustomed to our climate, as the Chasselas, 
bear on the lower eyes. 

MANTJRING. 

The grape vine, like all other plants, takes from the soil 
certain constituents which must be replaced to grow them 
successfully. They are the so-called mineral ingredients 
which cannot be supplied by the atmos^^here. To them 
belong especially potash and phosphoric acid, combined 
with lime. 

If the culture of the vine could be so managed that 
only the alcohol and the sugar were taken from the vine- 
yard, and that all other things taken from the vine were 
given back to the soil of the vineyard, no other manuring 
would be needed. But along with the wine, also tartar, 
and in this the potash is sold, as well as phosphate of 
lime. All the tartar sold and bought is derived from wine, 
3* 



58 THE GEAPE VIXE. 

and contains potash, of which the soil of the vineyard 
has been robbed. If that is not restored, and if it does 
not exist in the soil in the greatest abundance, the growth 
of the vine must be impaired. It is a fact that in former 
years the vine was planted in plains to a much greater ex- 
tent than at present ; so, many places in the Margraviate 
Brandenburg designate some tracts of land by calling them 
vineyards, though not a single vine is now growing there. 
An animal cannot form bones except by such food as con- 
tains phosphate of lime ; a hen cannot lay eggs with hard 
shells, if her nourishment does not contain lime. The vine 
cannot form tartar when it is wanting in potash, and the 
tartar, as it appears, is formed like the bones and the shell 
of the eggs, because it is never wanting, and the plant 
ceases growing without a full supply of potash. For 
these reasons, the culture of the vine has ceased in 
regions with little potash in the soil, after it had languished 
for a number of years without giving any profit. In plains 
it is impossible to restore the potash, except by man itself; 
but who could be induced to supply it without knowing 
the cause of the failure ? In mountainous districts the 
cause is very different ; the soil near the Moselle, the 
Rhine, the Nahe, and the Ahr consists of argillaceous 
slate ; there the stones are spread all ove* the inclined 
plains of the vineyards, so that not a single square inch 
of the soil remains uncovered, and the vineyards look 
more like quarries than plantations of vines. During the 
whole winter the stones, containing frequently as much as 
three per cent, of potash, are disintegrated by the weather, 
and the little particles are washed down into the soil by 
rain and melting snow, and supply there the loss caused 
by the removal of the last crop. As long as stones of this 
are abundant in those vineyards, potash is not wanting ; 
therefore the softest of such stones are preferred ; and 
where they are not found in small pieces, they are severed 
from the rocks with sledge hammers, and even withpow- 



THE GRAPE VINE. 59 

der, to cover the clean soil of the vmeyards with them, 
although this requires much labor. 

This is manuring with minerals in the best form, al- 
though it is the general belief that the stones serve only 
for warming the soil, and for preventing it from being car- 
ried oif by heavy rains. They are effective in this respect 
also, it is true, but they yield potash, and supply that 
which has been abstracted. It is the chief benefit derived 
from them. 

Should any one be skeptical, he can easily convince him- 
self by taking for tins purpose stones, destitute of potash. 
The experience of a few years will be suificient to show 
him the value of stones, containing potash. In Deides- 
heim, on the Haardt Mountains, disintegrated basalt is 
carried into the vineyards at great expense. There the 
soil in the plains contains but little potash, not enough to 
supply the vines in adequate proportions. Experience has 
taught people that stones carried into the vineyards from 
so great a distance yield the supply needed ; it is manur- 
ing with minerals. Basalt contains from two to four per 
cent of potash. But not only potash, but also phosphate 
of lime" must be restored, which is generally done by cow 
manure. It is true, cow manure contains phosphate of 
lime, and a sufficient quantity of potash. If we had al- 
ways a suff^ient supply of it, the potash, as well as, espe- 
cially, the phosphate of lime, carried off in the wine, would 
be restored to the soil. But cow manure is getting daily 
more expensive, and enough of it cannot be procured. 
When it shall have reached a certain price, vineyard cul- 
ture, which does not yield even now in our region a cer- 
tain crop every year, will not be profitable any more; 
we have nearly arrived at that point. 

Tlie cause why the price of cow manure is rising daily, 
lies simply in the fact that the potash and phosphate of 
lime have been abstracted from the fields to such a degree 
that they are exhausted. If the fanner cannot grow 



60 THE GRAPE VINE. 

clover, he has no feed for his cows, and cannot sell manures 
The number of farmers whose fields are becommg unpro- 
ductive is rapidly increasing, so that the price of manure 
must rise rapidly, because it is getting very scarce. The 
fields of the formers are impoverished when they sell the 
manure, and do not use it for fertilizing their own fields. 
It is an incontrovertible fact that the land is impoverished 
by selling the products of agriculture, eve:i loitho^it selling 
manure ; how much more certain and rapid will be its 
ruin, if, in addition to the products, the manure also is sold. 
A farmer who sells manure is a prodigal living on his cap- 
ital ; he lights his candle simultaneously at both ends. 
For a man who cannot resist the temptation to sell his 
manure, the day is already appointed on which his field 
will come under the hammer, and which will make him 
either an emigrant or a beggar. Emigration is a proof of 
the exhaustion of the soil ; thus the culture of vineyards 
becomes a curse to an agricultural country. It hangs like 
a vampire on the neck of the country, sucking the potash 
and phosphate of lime. It is my intention to stir up the 
farmers not to sell any more (not even an ounce,) manure 
to the owners of vineyards, for the interest of both. If 
the land of the farmers is ruined by selling manure, the 
owners of vineyards cannot get from them what they need, 
so that they will be forced at last to become fndependent 
of them. It is my ardent wish that this may take place 
before the farmer is ruined. 

The vinyardist will buy manure as long as it is offered 
to him at a suitable price ; he can console himself, should 
a farmer be ruined, by buying his field at the sheriff's 
sale. As it is the farmer who is ruined first, he ought 
to commence resistance, and to refuse to sell manure, or 
to ask such a price that he can buy double the value of 
it in bone dust, guano and wood ashes. He must use the 
money received for the manure in buying the materials 
just mentioned, and give them back to his fields. 



THE GRAPE VINE. 61 

Should the farmer get only sufficient money for his manure 
to buy an equivalent of bone dust, he has not sold at a 
profit. If, on the contrary, the yiuyardist has to pay 
double the amount for cow manure that he does for an 
equivalent in bone dust or leached ashes, he will cease 
buying manure, and will prefer to buy bone dust -for his 
money, of which he receives double the value as a manure 
for the same amount. If, liowever, the vinyardist con- 
tends that he cannot do without animal manure, which is 
not yet proven, he may then pvLj to the farmer the double 
price asked ; -for error must pay a tax. In this case the 
vinyardist receives what he wishes, and the farmer has 
his profit. If the same individual cultivates vineyards as 
well as fields, he may use his barnyard manure for his 
vineyards, and bone dust, guano, and leached ashes for his 
fields. It he cultivates only vineyards, he must become 
independent of the farmer, who will continue raising the 
price for manure, so that the vinyardist cannot buy it 
any more. As soon as the price for manure rises higher 
than that for an. equal quantity of fertilizing material in 
bone dust and guano, the vinyardist is forced to use them 
for fertilizing purposes. If a vineyard is situated in a re- 
gion of argillaceous slate, and if the surface of it is cov- 
ered with a stratum of this material, only bone dust is re- 
quired for manuring ; but if the vineyard is in a plain 
where disintegrated rock cannot be supplied, something 
besides must be used contahiing potash, for instance : wood 
ashes, leached ashes, dust from such roads and turnpikes 
as are covered Avith granite, syenite, basalt, and similar 
rocks containing small proportions of j^otash ; also soap- 
suds, chloride of potassium and sulphate of potash. It de- 
pends altogether on the price whether the one or the other of 
the materials mentioned deserves the preference. Of these 
manuring materials, leached ashes and road dust may be 
used immediately; those, however, which are soluble, for 
instance^ wood ashes, soapsuds, chloride of potasssiurn and 



62 THE GRAPE VINE. 

sulphate of potash, requh'e some preparation. All mineral 
stuffs, fit for the nourishment of plants, become insoluble 
in contact with the soil ; to prevent them from reaching 
the roots of the vines in a soluble form, they must be 
mixed with large quantities of good soil. Sufficient water 
is then.poured on it to wet it thoroughly, and so it re- 
mains long enough for the chemical changes. The result 
is an insoluble compound of the soil and the salts of pot- 
ash, which may be used as manure. 

In the fall, some of the soil on the northern side of the 
rows is removed, and some of the above compound is laid 
there; rain and snow will wash the fertilizing material 
into the soil. 

It is true, this chemical combination is nearly insoluble 
in pure water, but the soil surrounding the roots of the 
vine has an affinity for these stuffs, and in virtue of 
it, the particles of the salts of potash continue spreading 
from grahi to grain of the soil until they are evenly dis- 
tributed. This process is similar to the cementation of 
iron, in which the molecules of carbon change their 
places without ever having been volatile or liquid. 

The carbon gradually penetrates the white-hot, soft iron 
bars, until they are changed into steel. Precisely in the 
same way mineral substances penetrate' in the exhausted soil 
from above downwards, and reach the roots in such a con- 
dition that they can be absorbed by them without injury. 

The roots of the vine are very sensitive to soluble fer- 
tilizing materials. Liquid barn-yard manure, incautiously 
used, may kill or make them sick. In the summer following 
the application of it, the leaves turn yellow, the shoots 
that push are feeble, and the fruit remains poor, and does 
not mature. Liquid barn-yard manure ought, therefore, 
never be brought in direct contact w^ith the roots. 

Urine, not decomposed, contains urea, and not yet carbon- 
ate of ammonia, and the urine of man, besides, has a large 
proportion of common salt. If tliis liquid manure is to 



THR GRAPE VINE. 



G3 



be used for manuring purposes, it must be prepared in the 
same way. It must be mixed with sufficient soil to 
form a stiff paste, which is to be exposed to sunshine and 
rain. The heat decomposes the urea ; it is changed to 
carbonate of ammonia, and fixed and retained by the 
soil, while the undecomposed urea filtrates through the 
soil, and is carried down to the roots. The common salt 
is not fixed by the soil, and is washed out and carried off" 
by the rain. Liquid manure, so prepared, may, in a solid 
form, be unhesitatingly used as manure. The method 
just described, is nearly identical with that of the Japa- 
nese, and which that nation, during thousands of years, has 
followed in the management and preparation of manure, 
and which has reached us only by a very long and circuitous 
route. Our barn cellars, built at great expense, and re- 
warded by premiums as models, are, with exception of the 
water-tight floor, nothing but humbugs. Tiiey have been 
resorted"^ to through the error of the nitrogenous theory. 
We attempt to retain in force, what, in contact with the 
soil, remains of itself, viz.: the ammonia; we guard 
against sunshine and heat, and prevent thereby the de- 
composition of the urea; we keep what ought to be wash- 
ed out, the common salt. But to return to the Japanese 
method of preparing and managing manure. We must coU 
lect and preserve all the ofial obtained from our domestic 
life to be composted with soil, refuse of straw, etc., and to 
be exposed to sunshine and rain. Nothing useful is washed 
out ; that which is important and needed undergoes the 
necessary changes, and that which is injurious is remov- 
ed. There is, however, another reason why liquid manure 
ought to be subjected to the process of decomposition and 
condensation. It iscas^erVed th,i;. the disagreeable odor 
of liquid manure exeris tvn injurious inf.ueuce on the per- 
fume of the wine. I have jiot Jjad any ex]Derience of this 
alleged fact; but, I know fj:s)mmeneMC0_ that liqujd ma- 
nure makes vines ^Sickly. . , >' ' '^j"^,'' 



64 THE GRAPE VINE. 

In Mulder's work, The Chemistry of the Wine, there is 
tlie following passage, (p. 13, of the German translation 
by Charles Arenz, Leipsic, 185G) : " It is remarkable that 
fetid manure, fecal matter, and the mud of large cities 
have an injurious influence upon the perfume of the wine, 
while, on the contrary, inodorous manures, which decom- 
])0se slowly, for instance, wool, horn and bone-black, have 
a beneficial efiect upon the perfume. The fetid organic 
ingredients of the manure pass, therefore, over into the 
plants in such a quantity that they are perceivable in the 
fruit ; so is the fetid odor of decaying fishes easily distin- 
guished in the cauliflower when manured with them. It 
is not without danger to pronounce these facts aloud in a 
time in Avhich it is said of the plants that they do not take 
up the slightest particle from the soil ; I risk it, however, 
to mention the facts." 

This passage of Mulder has reference to the principles 
of agricultural chemistry established by Liebig to which 
Mulder is scientifically, and also personally, opposed, which 
is to be regretted. But Mulder could not have found a 
better proof for Liebig's pri^ciples than just that one be- 
fore us, which he uses as a weapon against them. If the 
odorous ingredients of the manure are such as are perceiv- 
able in the plant, they have not been received and assimi- 
lated by the plant. Liebig speaks only of the assimilation 
of certain bodies by the plant itself The sugar, the albu- 
men, the fibres in the fetid cauliflower, have assuredly 
their origin in inorganic matter ; the organic ingredients 
of the decaying fishes in it have not become parts of the 
cauliflower. The fact itself proves the necessity of de- 
animalizing all manure that is fetid, i. e., to change it as 
much as possible' t6 inorg'mip matter- by the aid of atmos- 
pheric influef'Cfes. • - 3< , .. 

In gdirden and fi/^ld cuHiri'e. large heaps of weeds are 
accumulating ; *they i?re e'xcfelknt 'for receiving liquid ma- 
nure, /'They are light and permeable, protlu'cing, by the aid 



THE GKAPE VINE. 65 

of liquid manure, in a short time a mould, which retains 
with great tenacity all mineral ingredients. When expos- 
ed during the summer, and until January and February, 
to the influence of sun and rain, and dug over several 
times, they make a very powerful manure. Oflal of the 
house,' of wood stoves, and of bones, is also added. He 
who cannot obtain cow manure may buy, during the sum- 
mer, a sufficient suj^ply of horse manure, which can easily 
be got, because people do not attach much value to it. 
If managed in the right way, it serves a very good pur- 
pose. 

It is generally believed that horse manure is too hot. This 
is a belief not well founded in fact ; the assertion is with- 
out sense. Horse manure is too light and so much mixed 
Avith straw, that it cannot have the same fertilizing power 
in the same bulk as cow manure. If the horse manure is 
well prepared and managed during the summer, it can be 
deprived of its heating power and lightness. It must be 
comi^osted in alternate layers with garden soil and coal 
ashes ; all bones that have been collected must be put in 
the horse manure, but not too many in the same place ; 
liquid manure must then be poured over the heap, and 
this must be covered about four inches deep with garden 
soil. So prepared, it remains exposed to rain and sun ; 
should a long drouth j^revail, it must be s]3rinkled from 
the rose of a water-pot. The heaps shrink considerably, 
but lose not a particle of useful ingredients by evapora- 
tion. When dug over from time to time, they make an 
entirely homogenous and very powerful manure. Fre- 
quently this oj^eration is called composting, which, on the 
Vvhole, does not mean anything definite. It is paramount 
that the materials nsed for compost hea^^s should con- 
tain potash and phosphoric acid. Composting exists, then, 
in such operations as tend to render tliose mineral materi- 
als insoluble in connection with soil, warmth and moisture. 
Heat ofifers the conditions of decomposition, and moisture 



66 THE GEAPE VINE. 

is instrumental in equally distributing and mixing soil and 
vegetable mould. How often manuring is needed, cannot 
be determined by a rule that will hold good everywhere 
and always. K many good years succeed each other, as 
was the case from 1857 to 1862, five times in six years, 
a more liberal and frequent application of manure is need- 
ed than in the bad years, from 1847 to 1856. This follows 
directly from the rule : If no fruit is taken from a vine- 
yard, the fertilizing mineral ingredients remain in it ; if, 
on the contrary, the crop is abundant, a very large quantity 
of potash and phosphoric acid has been taken from the 
soil. No attention has been paid as yet to this circum- 
stance, so that the application of manure after a bad year 
was the same as after a good one, as though the mineral 
manures were removed by the mere lapse of time. 

The application of manure ought, without exception, to 
take place soon after the fall of the leaf, as long as the 
weather permits it. Some of the soil at the back of the 
vine, consequently, according to our rule, on the north 
side, being removed by using the hoe, the manure must 
be put in the little ditch so made, and must remain un- 
covered during the whole winter. Rain and snow decom- 
pose and carry the manuring materials gradually down- 
ward. In the spring, the manure is lightly covered and 
mixed with the soil, but not so that the roots are injured. 
Every two, three, or four years, manure is needed. If the 
weather is favorable, and berries and clusters remain small, 
while they are abundant and of normal size in neighbor- 
ing plantations, the soil has not a full supply of mineral 
matter. If the crop is abundant, it indicates the necessity 
for manuring, because the mineral matter has been carried 
off by it. As the vine liberally repays all the care be- 
stowed upon it, there are always causes for better manur- 
ing, but not a single one for not giving enough. There is 
no danger from an overdose of well prepared manure; it 
will only assist in producing the best possible crops. 



TUB GKAPE VINE. 67 



On declivities tlie manure must be placed above the vines 
in shallow ditches, crossing the vineya.-d. The so.l from 
them is heaped up on the lower side of them. This soil 
collects the rain water running down the hill, and keeps it 
in the ditches filled with manure. It penetrates the soil 
bv a force inherent in it. It is very wrong, as prescribed 
and taught in many books, to put the manure near the roots 
This cannot be effected without injuring them, the mineral 
manures reaching the roots by cementation and according 
to the law of gravity. If they are abundant above, they 
will not be wanting below, in the course of time. 

It is in the nature of things that a plant can he ma- 
nured with the offal from it. Rape may be grown on soil 
manured with oil cake, the refuse of making oil from rape ; 
-rape wood, leaves, tendrils, and skins will assist the 
arowth of the vine very much. It is, therefore, very im- 
portant to take from a vineyard or garden as lUtU as pos- 
sible, and to give back as much as possible or, m other 
words, nothing but the grape juice must be taken from the 
vineyard; everything else must be restored to it. ihe 
canes cut off in the fall or spring must be chopped into 
small pieces with a hatchet and mixed with manure. The 
pressed skins, either before or after distillation, i' brandy 
is made, must be thrown on the compost heap. If all the 
refuse parls of the vine are used for preparing manure, it 
reduces the purchase of manure to the smallest figure; it 
is as impossible to avoid it entirely, as it is impossible 
to invent a lamp that can be fed with the spare oil. 
What is sold in the wine itself must be restored to the 
vineyard from other sources; we lessen it by using the 

offal from the vine. 

If the pressed skins are boiled for distilling alcohol, they 
are of course nearly valueless for manuring purposes. It, 
however, Tartaric acid, (which does not cause a loss of the 
soil,) is made, part of the profit may be used for buying 
and restoring in a cheaper form the potash taken with 



68 THE GKAPE YIXE. 

it. The liopes based on mfinnring vines by using the offal 
from them have, therefore, not been realized. SoEie- 
times another way of manuring, with green plants, is 
talked of; it is recommended to sow among the vines 
vetches, turnips, clover, cereals and the like, and to dig or 
plow them under as soon as those plants are fully devel- 
oped in their growth. This is manuring with the seeds 
alone. What those plants have taken from the soil was 
already in it, and can therefore not enrich it. Such seeds, 
however, are too expensive to use as manure, and the labor 
is too great. 

All such liopes, founded on imaginary effects of green 
manure, have disappeared before the light of exact science. 

For a long time an ill-founded importance was ascribed 
to digging the soil of the vineyard, and it was recom- 
mended to repeat this four or five times during the season. 
According to an old ^Droverb, to dig well amounts to slight 
manuring, ( Gut gegraben ist hcilb geduengt^ and the fa- 
ble of the vineyard, in which the sons are said to have 
found the hidden treasure in the abundant croj^s by fre- 
quent digging, bears testimony to such a view. It was the 
result of the opinion prevailing formerly of the inexhausti- 
bility of the soil, in which those who are in favor of im- 
moderate digging share yet. But as we know at present 
that this is not so, we find now that digging is not manur- 
ing, and that the story of the vineyard is but a story. 
The stirring of the soil is useful, as it permits the air to 
penetrate the soil and to assist in the formation of carbonic 
acid; it opens also the soil to a more thorough influence 
of the rain. In digging, the greatest care must be used 
not to go so deep as to touch the roots ; for, to remove the 
soil from the fibrous roots, would be equ^l to a destruction 
of the whole crop. In vineyards covered with debris of 
rocks, no digging can take place, except in the spring, 
when the vineyard is either manured or only stirred. 
Very frequently the vines are manured in the spring, in 



THE GRAPE VIXE. G9 

order to make use of the manure collected during the 
winter. It would be better to manure in the fall, and to 
preserve the winter manure in heaps for the following- 
year. Bat at 2^1'esent manure is so scarce tliat such a 
course cannot be thought of. To pay people for digging, 
is an expense which does not enrich the soil. In a rational 
culture of the soil this expense will be reduced to that 
which is unavoidably necessary ; the money saved in thia 
way is better employed in buying fertilizing materials for 
improving the soil. 

In some books, nice distinctions are made in regard to 
different kinds of manures, such as hen, sheep, hog, pigeon, 
and other manures. Of one it is said, that it is too dry, 
another, again, too moist. All such distinctions amount to 
nothing and are meaningless. If the manures are " Japan- 
ized" before their application, they are all equally good, 
because all animals live on the same constituents of the 
plants. 

THE AGE OF THE VINEYARD. 

In our climates the age of the vineyard is, as a rule, 
twenty-five or thirty, and in some localities fifteen or 
twenty years ; then the vines commence to be unproduc- 
tive, and a new phmtation causes a loss of four or five 
years. Bronner describes, as early as twenty-six years 
ago, in his work " Viticulture on the Rhine," No. 3, p. 33, 
this gradual failing of the vine. He says : " The vines pro- 
duce but a few grapes ; although they bloom like other 
vigorous ones, yet they have not pow^r to make fine wood ; 
they turn yellow and sickly, and look at last as if their 
pith had been killed by frost. Many vineyards of this 
kind, especially towards Mentz, (he speaks of the vine- 
yards at Hochheim,) on the westerly side of the place, 
show such a sickly weakness; no stimulant nor any ma- 
nure can restore them to their former vio'or. Such enfeeb- 



TO THE GRAPE VINE. 

led vines may be considered as a cancer in the household ; 
they are a dead capital, the interest from which, the ex- 
pected crops, the owner loses, and on which he bestows 
besides, annually, unprofitable labor. Is not," Bronner con- 
tinues, " this short life to be ascribed to the fact that the 
soil has been used during many centuries for the same pur- 
pose, so that it is now exhausted ?" But what has been ab- 
stracted from it ? Hoerter thinks, that there is a want of 
humus, (vegetable mould, muck,) which is, according to 
him, the soul of the vegetable kingdom. If such soil is 
leeched out, and the liquid is a colorless fluid, then it is 
exhausted and unproductive. But Bronner observes cor- 
rectly that the vines do not grow better after an applica- 
tion of humus, and that they thrive luxuriantly on the 
other hand in pure argillaceous marl, which does not con- 
tain the slightest trace of humus. '* For," he says, " it is 
an established fact that vines grow best in soil on which 
vines have never before grown, in a virgin soil, never 
worked before; in such soil they reach also a greater age." 

"I," says Bronner, " have endeavored to investigate the 
matter in the vineyards ; I have called natural j^hilosophy 
and chemistry to my assistance ; I have conversed about it 
with scientific men ; but no explanation is satisfactory to 
me as yet without resorting to hypothetical phrases." 

This excellent man felt, twenty-six years ago, that all 
explanations then in vogue were unsatisfactory, and yet, 
on the folloAving page, he seems inclined to assent to the 
view that the roots of the plants excrete matter injurious 
to their own growth. What are the present teachings of 
science in this respect ? We know that no stimulants ex- 
ist for pUmts, hut only nourishment. We know that the 
plants do not excrete anything injurious to themselves, 
that cannot be changed again into carbonic acid by rot- 
ting. We know that the whole doctrine of humus is 
nothing but error and deception. The only cause of the 
premature death of the vines, which is true and perfectly 



THE GRAPE VIXE. 71 

sufficient, lies in the exhaustion of the soil of mineral con- 
stituents, and in too short pruning. The reasons given 
by Bronner prove this. The soil may be rendered incapa- 
ble of producing vines as of producing clover. After a 
few years the roots of the vine penetrate the soil so deep 
that the manure cannot reach them, because it moves 
slowly and with difficulty in the soil. So their nourish- 
ment can only be taken from the mineral constituents in 
their immediate vicinity, ^y close pruning ice prevent 
roots from going deeper in quest of food stored up there. 
There exists a mutual action between the formation of 
leaves and wood. The wood fibres, oricrinatiu<r from car- 
bonic acid, cannot be formed except by the excretion of 
oxygen at the surface of the leaves. The greatest quan- 
tity of wood fibre is formed if the vine is not pruned at 
all, but sufiered to grow at will ; in the same proportion, 
also, the root groics, provided that there is a sufficiency of 
mineral constituents. Under this condition, even the 
greatest quantity of sugar is formed, but its percentage 
in the single cluster does not satisfy us. We diminish, by 
pruning, the formation of the absolute amount of sugar, 
in order to raise its percentage in the few grapes left. In 
this way w^e diminish the formation of wood and roots, 
and to obtain a very few sweet clusters, we cripple the vine 
by pruning, pre cent the root from going deep, and so lay 
the foundation of its premature decay. The vine can 
reach the age of 800 years, yet we see it die of old age 
under our treatment after the short life of twenty-five 
years. To dig deep, or trench, is only effective a few 
times, i. e., as long as the lower strata of the soil not yet 
exhausted can be dug out and mixed with the others. But 
the period of the life of the new vine planted in the place 
is successively abridged in each of the following attempts, 
and ends necessarily by the relinquishment of the land if 
the mineral ingredients taken from below are not restored 
again below. Manuring is useful for an indefinite period 



72 THE GRAPE YHSTE. 

if only plants, the roots of wliicli spread near the surface, 
are cultivated. That is the reason why mowing land, 
and a wheat field may be kept constantly productive, but 
not a field sown to Lucerne, a vineyard, or a forest. Expe- 
rience has proved abundantly that the field of Lucerne, 
when giving out, cannot be restored, even by manuring it 
most abundantly. 

The mineral constituents of the plants are contained in 
the soil in an insoluble form, or they are changed to sucb 
a form by combining with other constituents of the soil, 
if they are mixed Avith it in a solution. For instance, 
sulphate of potash cannot filter through the soil wdien dis- 
solved in water, nor can phosphate of lime, when dissolved 
by carbonic acid ; they remain in the uppermost stratum, 
and nearly pnre water filters through. If the hnmus does 
contain minerals, it is excellent, but Avithout them, not worth 
a farthing. ISTothing grows in peat, nothing in brown coal, 
both being nearly pure humus, except they make ashes 
containing potash, which is hardly ever the case. All this 
leads us necessarily to the fundamental truth already 
stated in the above, that viticulture can, in the future, 
only be based on manuring with minerals, and that with- 
out them it will disappear in the course of time, as has 
already been the case in the plains of middle Germany 
and in the Rhine country, if it cannot be carried on by 
manuring with minerals. But how" can this be effected ? 
Science will assist also in that, because she alone can give 
aid. Road-dust from granite, syenite, j^horphyry, etc., will, 
as has been already mentioned, be exported as an article of 
trade and conveyed by the railroads, w-hich diminish so 
much the formation of road-dust. The few roads yet used 
for carts and carriages, will be considered as the mills 
which pulverize the rocks w^ithout extra labor. Pure feld- 
spar will be very much preferred; from the proceeds from 
the s-ale of the dust the roads can be kej^t in good order, 
still leaving a margin of profit. If the percentage of pot- 



THE GEAPE VINE. 73 

ash is the same in different rocks, the softest will be pre- 
ferred : different granites will be analyzed, in order to find 
such as contain the greatest percentage of potash. Per- 
haps granite will be heated, thrown into cold water, and 
pulverized in mills, to take from nature by force what she 
is taking from us daily through the plants. Enormous 
quantities of potash are contained in the ocean. In South- 
ern France, thousands of tons of potash salts are sent to 
the markets ; they are obtained from the lyes of the salt 
yards. The water of the ocean contains more than one 
thousandth part of its weight of chloride of potassium. In 
the water of the Dead Sea is contained one and one-third per 
cent, of chloride of potassium, consequently ten times more 
than in the water of the ocean. The trachytes of the Eifel 
contain four and one-half per cent. ; the phorphyry of 
Kreuznach, five and one-half per cent. ; that of Freiburg 
seven and a half per cent. ; the phronolite of Hohenkraehen 
even twenty-four per cent, of potash. This shows that 
enormous quantities of such materials, as we need so much 
for growing plants, are accumulated. Science will find 
and make known the localities where they are to be found ; 
technical art will find the means of making them available. 

THE RISING SAP I:N^ THE VINE. 

More than a hundred years ago an English clergyman, 
by the name of Stephen Hales, made an experiment to 
measure by a column of water or quicksilver the force of 
the rising sap in the vine. I am not in possession of his 
original work, yet the experiment is mentioned in many 
books ; but I do not find that anybody has ever either re- 
peated or confirmed the experiment, so that at last, on ac- 
count of the length of time, doubts were raised whether 
it were so or not. Hales inserted the cut end of a cane 
in a glass tube, bent in the form of the letter S. The 
sap issuing from the wound rose twenty-one feet high. 
4 



74 



THE GRAPE VINE. 



Hales then filled the tube with quicksilver, which rose to 
a height of thirty-two inches. Out of curiosity I repeated 
this experiment in the year 1849, and found that the results 
obtained by Hales Avere perfectly 
correct. I have not published any- 
thing about it, but I think this a 
good opportunity to communicate 
here, verbatim, the results as noted 
down in my memorandum book. 

" On the 16th of April I repeated 
the frequently mentioned exj^eri- 
ment of Hales in regard to the ris- 
ing of the sap in the vine. At first 
I arranged glass tubes for the sap 
to rise in them ; but I had to give 
this up because the sap filled the 
glass tubes very soon, and I was 
prevented by the wall on which the 
vine (Chasselas,) grew, from mak- 
ing them longer. 

" Then the apparatus, represented 
in Fig. 12, was arranged. It con- 
sisted of a glass bottle closed witli 
a cork, which was tied firmly to the 
glass, so that it could not be forced 
out nor even moved. The cork was 
perforated with two holes, in one of 
Avhich a small glass tube, bent at a 
right angle, was inserted; in the 
other, a glass tube, three feet long, which nearly touched 
the bottom. The cane was fresh cut and connected with 
the small glass tube by means of an India rubber tube, 
enlarged to receive the cane, and then surrounded by 
thick strips of Imen. The bottle contained quicksilver an 
inch deep ; the remaining space was filled with water, 
without a bubble of air. 




Fi?. 12. 



THE GRAPE VINE. 75 

The rising took place in the following manner : 
April 16, A. M., 1849, 9 o'clock 45 min., 1"— 



a (( 




10 


u a 




11 


H il 




11 


a u 




12 


April 16, P. 


M. 


, 1849, 12 


u a 




2 


(( u 




3 


u u 




7 


U (( 




9 


April 17, A 


. M., 1849, 8 



10 


a 


3" 10"' 


30 


(I 


4" 10"' 





li 


7«_ 


30 


a 


7" 4"' 


— 


a 


7" 6"' 


43 


li 


8" 7"' 


9 


u 


11"— 


47 


(( 


12"— 


— 


(( 


13"— 


45 


a 


15— 


15 


il 


19" 3"' 



then it commenced falling again. 

According to the spec. gr. of the quicksilver of 13.57, 
the height of nineteen and a quarter inches of the quick- 
silver is equal to a pressure of water of 26.12. The quick- 
silver did not, in my experiment, rise so high as in Hales', 
but high enough to confirm the facts. This phenomenon 
remains yet unexplained. Neither the law of cajDillary at- 
traction nor endosmosis furnish the least means of expla- 
nation, although both have so frequently been resorted to. 
The cause of the saj) rising seems to lie in the whole 
length of the cane. The fact that the upj^ermost eyes 
push always most vigorously, agrees with it. 

The liquid is, according to my researches, very weak in 
constituents. One litre ga^ve only 2.43 grammes of dry 
matter, or 0.243 per cent. ; this, reduced to ashes, weighed 
only 0.65 grammes, or 0.065 per cent, ingredients of the 
ashes. The ashes showed a very feeble alkaline reaction. 
It contained lime, and I could trace a little phosphoric acid 
by molybdanic acid. The liquid, mixed with sugar, does 
not ferment. It contains, therefore, no albuminous mat- 
ter, and remains perfectly clear by boiling. The loss of 
matter, therefore, w^hich the vine sustains by bleeding, is 
of very little account, except we consider it unnatural 



76 THE GRAPE VINE. 

that tlie vine should indulge in the satisfaction of its ten- 
dency to raise the sap so high. It is a ridiculous supersti- 
tion that this liquid serves a good j)urpose as an eye water. 

THE GRAPE DISEASE. 

In the year 1845, a fungus originated at Margate, in 
England, in a vinery for forcing grapes. It is related that 
it escaped through a broken window light, and commenced 
its destructive travel over Europe and the adjoining parts 
of the world. It attacks unripe berries, covering them 
with a coat resembling flour; its roots penetrate the skin 
of the berry, destroys thereby its structure, so that it can- 
not grow anymore. As the sap continues flowing to it, it 
cracks from want of expansibility, dries up, and decays. 
It creeps on the berry along the peduncle to the shoots 
and leaves, covering the whole vine with a white film, ex- 
cept the woody parts of it. Single spores, carried by wind 
or insects to distant points, create a new source of infec- 
tion from which it spreads again by creeping, so that, 
by these two ways of dissemination, in a short time, the 
largest trellises of vines are destroyed. The fungus in 
question belongs to the genus of the Oldiums, resembling 
egg-shaped pearls, as transparent as glass, which are, as it 
were, strung on a thread; when they are detached and 
separated, they sprout and make roots. Of these Oidiums 
many species were known long ago, but they were of no 
importance compared with that in question, because they 
appeared only now and then, attacking only wild plants 
of no value. The grape fungus, however, spreads so 
rapidly, and the plant attacked by it is of so great im- 
portance, that it attracted general attention. The question 
might be asked here why this fungus was not observed 
earlier. We cannot answer it from history. We know, 
however, from the recent investigations of Darwin and 
others, that the species of plants and animals are not con- 
stant; they are subject to continual changes caused by ex- 



THE GEAPE VINE. 77 

ternal conditions and circumstances. Althougli not a sin- 
gle case of generatio spontanea s. equivoca, (immediate 
creation within the historical period,) has been established 
or proved, yet we recogbize the fact that beings, already 
in existence, may be very much changed by external con- 
ditions, especially those lowest organisms with their sim- 
ple organs. The nature of the Oidiums is changed by the 
nature of the body on which they lead their parasitic 
life. The year 1862 was very productive of different kinds 
of Oidiums. I observed in my garden that not only the 
grapes, but roses, Thlas2n Bursa-Pastoris, Bignonia, 
Catalpa, cucumbers, squashes, Zamium album, peas, and 
many other plants were attacked. Under the microscope 
they were so similar in form, that they all might have 
been regarded as the same. It is true, they showed little 
differences in the form, yet they did not necessarily estab- 
lish a difference of the species ; it is very probable that 
the same spore has a different development on the leaves 
of the cucumber, or Bignonia, from that which it would 
have on the tender leaves of the pea. In this way, the 
spore of an Oidium, grown on another plant, may have 
settled on the berry of a grape vine in a warm, moist glass 
house, and its nature may have been changed so much, 
that it was now especially fit to grow on grapes. Conse^ 
quently, it is not in the least remarkable that the grape 
disease has not made its appearance earlier, but only after 
a new species had been called into existence by fovorable 
circumstances, a species especially fit to live on the juice 
of unripe grapes. So the disease came into existence and 
has not as yet disappeared. There is reason to believe 
that the spores of the Oidium may remain dormant during 
the winter, on the infected canes and buds. This is 
proved by the fact that the disease re-appears regularly m 
southern countries, and that its recurrence in northern, 
colder countries, is irregular and sporadic. "With us, the 
disease seems to be destroyed by a severe wmter; for 



78 THE GRAPE VINE. 

many cases are known in which it did not re-appear in lo- 
calities where it was very prevalent the year before. In 
countries enjoying mild winters, like Madeira, Tyrol, and 
Italy, its re-appearance may be predicted almost to a day. 
There is also a difference in regard to its appearance. In 
the South, it is frequently observed before the time of blos- 
soming ; with us, not until the berries have attained the size 
of small peas. The warm months of April and May, in 
1862, developed the spores so early that the disease had 
already spread to a great extent in the beginning of July. 

At the first appearance of this Oidium, which was called 
by Berkeley Oidium TucJceri, those whose vineyards 
were affected by it, were driven to. despair. The descrip- 
tion of it given by Mr. de Comini, the owner of a farm 
at Botzen, is really awful. Year after year the whole crop 
was lost, families sank into poverty, and emigration and 
seizure of their property followed. 

The results of the experiments to counteract this calam- 
ity, were slow, and centered in the view entertained that 
pulverized sulphur, sprinkled over the vines, was a never 
failing specific. At first, the operation was performed in 
a defensive way ; only the clusters attacked by the fun- 
gus, were sprinkled. Afterwards it was thought better to 
use the sulphur as a preventive; the whole vine Avas 
sprinkled with sulphur to prevent the disease. At last, 
experience established the fact, that it is necessary to ap- 
ply the sulphur four or five times, to kill the sj^ores, and to 
prevent the disease from spreading. 

In the beginning of July, in 1862, I noticed for the first 
time on a trellis a spot affected with the disease ; it had 
never appeared before in the same garden. At that time 
my garden contained several thousand feet of trellis ; I 
saw at once the difficulty, amounting almost to an impos- 
sibility of staying the disease by sprinkling the leaves and 
bunches, for some of the trellises were from sixteen to 
twenty feet high, and not accessible without the use of a 



THE GEAPE VINE. 79 

ladder. Thinking over all the experiments made to com- 
bat the evil, I saw that they were mostly only prophylac- 
tic, (preventive.) I concluded, therefore, to proceed at 
once in a defensive way, and to destroy the spores as soon 
as they originated. The result showed that this was much 
easier than it seemed to be at first. The diseased spot was 
thoroughly cleansed ; all bunches seized with the disease, 
beyond the possibility of curing them, were broken ofi", 
and the leaves and branches severely beaten with towels 
and brushwood. 

Then the diseased spot with its surroundings was very 
frequently examined, and all new attacks of the disease 
instantly annihilated. This was effected in the following 
manner: I carried a deep box filled with flowers of sul- 
phur, around the neck, by means of a cord, so that I had it 
before me, in which a common hair brush, an inch thick, 
was kept. In examining the clusters, great facility of recog- 
nizing the disease is very soon acquired, so that there is not 
the least doubt about it. Especially the small berries which 
are not developed, because they are not fertilized, are seized 
when they are not larger than a pin's head. These appear 
as if powdered white, while everything else around them 
is in order yet. Where there is such a berry, there is gen- 
erally, also, a small empty space by which the infection is 
retarded. Such a cluster is then taken in the hollow of the 
left hand, then brushed powerfully with the brush, not 
charged with sulphur, and then dusted over by means of 
the same brush with sulphur. A spot, so treated, is always 
saved. The sooner the examination of the vines com- 
mences, the easier it is to accomplish the purpose. Often- 
times many days elapse before a new infection takes place. 
In a large garden, of three acres area, with vines planted 
everywhere, it required but an hour every day to arrest 
the evil. 

Sometimes I found twenty spots affected, sometimes but 
one, and had the disease not already spread so much be- 



80 THE GRAPE VINE. 

fore I noticed it, the task would have been still easier. 
The disease ahoays attacks the hunches first, and only ap- 
pears on the leaves and branches later ; if it is destroyed 
on the berries it does not reach the leaves. When the 
bunches begin to ripen, they are in less danger than the 
leaves and green shoots. The bunches so treated ripened 
perfectly on vines, of which every leaf was affected. 

The protection is, therefore, to be confined to the clus- 
ters, as it is impossible to treat leaves and shoots in a like 
manner. In a cluster saved, the object of the labor is be- 
fore us ; it is not so near and immediate in the leaves and 
shoots, the number of which is much larger. The offen- 
sive (prophylactic) treatment causes under all circum- 
stances the same amount of labor, the defensive only in 
proportion to what is really saved. 

The first traces of the disease appear, as stated, always 
on the unripe cluster. The disease does not spread, nor 
do the leaves or the green shoots suffer when the fungus is 
destroyed there. 

There is no place for the spores of the Oidium, but on 
the green shoots, which will be canes in the fall by chang- 
ing their green color into brown. This fact was proven 
by the experiments of Mr. de Comiiii. In November, 
he cut off infected canes, which was evident from the 
dark spots on them, and kept them in a warm room, in 
pots, having horse-manure and sods at the bottom. After 
the lapse of seven weeks, the fangiis appeared on those 
dark spots, covering, in a short time, the whole cane. It 
is therefore very important to watch the vines carefully 
in the spring in order to destroy the fungus as soon as it 
makes its appearance ; this will very much diminish its 
sj^reading. 



[From the above statement and description of Dr. Mohr, 
it is evident that the Oidium as prevalent in Euroj^e is 
either different from that which attacks the American va 



THE GKAPE VINE. 81 

rieties, or modified and changed, to a certain degree, by 
atmospheric influences. Tlie grape vine disease, at least 
here, at the East, always attacks the leaves first, and the 
clusters only later, if they are attacked at all. It is well 
known that Dr. Engelmann, of St. Louis, and other nat- 
uralists of this country, consider the European and Amer- 
ican Oidium as two diflerent species, and maintain, besides, 
that there is a second species also in America. Be this as 
it may, it is an established fact that flowers of sulphur is 
a specific against the disease prevalent in America as well 
as that in Europe. To destroy the spores in the spring 
before the buds swell, it is beneficial to sprinkle them 
thoroughly by means of a garden syringe, with the follow- 
ing mixture, recommended by Mr. ^N'eubert, of Leipsic, the 
scientific vine grower. 

Eiorht and a half ounces of common salt, and four ounces 
of saltpetre must be dissolved in 36 ounces of water ; add 
to the. solution, 10 drops of oil of Rosemary, and 10 drops 
of oil of Lavender. Take one part of the solution and use 
it with 100 or 120 parts of water. It must be vigorously 
stirred before using it, on account of the essential oils 
which otherwise would easily separate from it. 

The trellises, posts and Avails, must also be thoroughly 
sprinkled as well as the vines. As soon as the leaves ex- 
pand they must be dusted all over with flowers of sul- 
phur, then again when they blossom, a third time when 
the berries are as large as peas, and lastly, when they be- 
gin to color. This, of course, is a prophylactic treatment ; 
but as the berries are attacked later than the leaves, if at 
all, it can not be otherwise. The efi'ect of the sulphuration 
is very powerful. Flowers of sulphur also keep the thrips 
in check, an enemy of the grape vine that grows every 
day more formidable. 

The vines may be dusted by means of a brush ; yet it 

is difficult by means of it to dust the underside of the 

leaves. 

4* 



83 



THE GKAPE VINE. 



The bellows invented in France, by Mr. De La Yergne, 
(figure 13,) is the most convenient instrument for dusting 
all parts of the vine thoroughly, especially the imder- 
side of the leaves. Several years ago I imported a number 




Fig. 13. 

of them from France, at great expense and loss, for pat- 
terns to have them manufactured here. They can be ob- 
tained from the Messrs. Woodward, editors of the Horti- 
culturist, who have them always on hand. 

There is another instrument, called, in Germany, the 
"Grape-vine Torch." It consists of a conical duster made 
of tin, the bottom of which is perforated with a great num- 
ber of small holes. Sometimes the holes are made larger, 
so that pieces of woolen yarn (worsted) can be passed 
through them, leaving space enough for the sulphur to be 
shaken through, and to spread even- 
ly by the pieces of woolen yarn 
which project several inches from 
the bottom. Such a duster must 
be about eight or ten inches long, 
and at the bottom about four inches 
or four and a half in diameter. 
There must, of course, be a cover 
to it to prevent the sulphur from 
falling out. Figure 14 illustrates 
the grape vine torch, with a por- 
tion of the side removed to show the interior arrangement. 
This instrument has the same disadvantage as a brush, 
because the underside of the leaves can only with difficul- 
ty be dusted over by means of it. 




^=t5|» 



Fio;. 14. 



THE GRAPE VINE. 83 

The sulphuration ought to be performed in the middle 
of the day when the sun shines ; should a sudden rain 
wash the sulphur off, it must immediately be repeated as 
soon as the weather becomes dry. 

It would be useless to mention here other remedies for 
destroying that terrible disease ; for instance, three parts 
of coal tar mixed with ninety-seven parts of sand or dry 
soil. Some of this compound laid about the vines is said 
to prevent the disease ; but sulphur, if properly applied, 
never fails to prevent or destroy it. — Translator.^ 

TREATMENT OF VINES INJURED BY FROST. 

In our northern climates, the wood of the vine suffers 
during winters that are very cold. No buds push in the 
spring, and the wood dries up in the course of the summer. 
It is true it does not happen frequently, yet it happens 
sometimes. To prevent this, the vines j^runed in the fall 
are covered with soil. This is the rule in the east of Ger- 
many ; in the west, on the Rhine, it is not customary, be- 
cause truly dangerous wmters are of too rare occurrence to 
warrant the same laborious work, annually. 

Vines injured by frost are, in this region, cut off just 
above ground ; but this operation is injurious and faulty 
in the hig^hest deo^ree. The roots not havin<? suffered from 
frost send up in the spring an abundance of sap, which 
flows out of the large wound. This flow of the sap con- 
tinues not unfrequently for a month, and consequently the 
you^ig shoots are lessened and retarded. These young 
shoots cannot ripen their wood in the course of the sum 
mer, so that in the following winter they suffer again from 
the frost. The treatment of a vine injured by frost must 
therefore be entirely changed from this. The injured vines 
must not be pruned at all, in order to prevent the rising 
sap from getting wasted ; they must be permitted to push 
just as they are. In this case the number of the pushing 



84 THE GEAPE VINE. 

eyes is as large as possible, no sap being lost by flowing 
out. 

This causes tlie shoots to grow vigorously ; they can 
mature their wood in the summer and bear fruit the next 
year; in the third year all that has been lost by frost may 
have been replaced by a new growth, and the vine may 
have attained its former size. In this way only one crop 
is lost. 

If the vine was pruned in the fall, nothing is cut off after 
the frost in the spring ; the young shoots, which appear 
in large numbers, must be suffered to grow until they are 
four or five feet long. Then the weakest of them are re- 
moved, without injuring the strong ones, in order to make 
them grow more vigorously. Pinching the laterals must 
be entirely omitted until at pruning in the fall. The eyes 
of the young shoots may all, in the course of the summer, 
be sufficiently well developed for producing blossoms, be- 
cause no saj) in this case is used for nourishing fruit. The 
pruning in the fall must be very moderate, and confined to 
the removal of the laterals. 

The vme does not suffer from covering it with soil ; it 
is not even injured by inundation. A small vineyard ad- 
joining my farm is almost every year flooded by the 
Moselle, during ten or fourteen days ; it has never suffered 
from it, and seems to do better than others. Tliere are 
vineyards on the Rhine, between Coblenz and Bingen, 
which are flooded nearly every year, without suflering in 
the least. The vine may suffer in the spring from late 
frosts coming after leaves and blossoms have appeared. 
The warmer the spring, and the more advanced the shoots, 
the greater is the danger. In this respect the cold days, 
from the twelfth to the fourteenth of May, are well known 
and dreaded; they are generally called the cold saints, 
JPancratius^ Servatms and Bonifacius. It is a well estab- 
lished fact, corroborated by many years' experience, that 
at that time a cold storm from the north visits the middle 



THE GEAPE VINE. 85 

of Europe, often destroying in a single night the hopes of 
a whole year. The cause of the phenomenon is as yet un- 
known. It is not always coincident with the days men- 
tioned ; for it may come one or two weeks earlier, or a 
few days later. In our region this storm was in a certain 
year experienced on the 21st day of April; in another 
(1854), on the 24th of April, not injuring the yet unde- 
veloped shoots of the vine, while the plums and pears 
then in blossom suffered severely. Nothing has been pro- 
posed or attempted against such cold storms except filling 
the air with smoke from slowly burning brushwood, sods 
and moist straw. Smoke makes the aii' less transparent, 
and so prevents the warmth from radiating. Although 
the prospects for the crop of a whole year are at stake, 
and, in consequence of it, the vintner's means of 
living, yet smoking is rarely, and nowhere regularly, 
resorted to. The danger is greatest about an hour and 
a half or two hours before sunrise; but at that time 
man is overpowered by sleep. The difficulty of leav- 
ing the bed and remaining in the open air during a long 
cold night will always be in the way of its practice, and 
will be the cause of neglecting to save the vines in the way 
mentioned. Fatalism is a convenient belief; it permits 
one to remain in bed while it is freezing hard. Such sys- 
tems have always many followers. 

In clear nights, a broad cold current of air descends 
slowly from the summits of the mountains ; the direction 
of it can be easily ascertained by the motion of the smoke 
from a pipe or a cigar. Smoking fires should therefore 
regularly be built, just above the vineyard, on the highest 
spot between the mountain and the vineyard. Should 
there be a high wind, there is hardly any danger, because 
it surrounds and warms again the parts of the vine cooled 
by radiation. If there is no wind and the smoke rises in 
a straight column, H cannot be of any use. To observe 
all these things in a dark night, is not an easy matter. 



86 



THE GEAPE VIXE. 



Smoking fires will long remain in the books, wliere they 
are strongly recommended, before they will be resorted to 
in practical life. 

IMPLEMENTS. 

The implements absolutely necessary for the management 

of the vine are, first : garden shears, and secondly, a knife. 
Good garden shears are at j)resent so well known that a 

description of them would be useless. 

The pruning knife, which may without inconvenience be 
carried in the pocket, was, before the intro- 
duction of correctly made shears, the only 
implement of the gardener. It has been in 
a great measure superseded by shears, because 
nearly all the work may be done with those 
equally well and with greater dispatch. At 
present the pointed form, Figure 15, is alone 
recommended in horticultural books, while 
knives, sharply curved at their ends, such as 
were formerly used, are not thought much of. 
It seems to me that there is no good cause 
for overpraising the former and undervaluing 
the latter. The pointed knife does not cut, 

except the blade is pressed powerfully against the branch. 
In order to be able to ; r 

do this, the knife must i i 

be grasped as shown in 

Figure 16; this, how- 
ever, requires a great 

strength in the hand, 

when the cut is made 

with the point, the part 

of the knife which is 

thinnest and best fitted 

for cutting. 

If the knife is curved at the point, as in the old form, 



15. 




Fia:. 16. 



THE GRAPE VINE. 



87 




Fig. 11 



the cvreatest resistance is in a direct line with the hand 
and "arm, (fig. IT,) and the cut becomes more of a pull 
than in the other form, in which it is 
a pressure from the side. 

Yet a drawing cut is the most 
effective of all, because the muscles 
of the upper part of the arm come 
into play. In using the knife in this 
way, the drawing would pull it out of 
the hand if this were not counteracted 
by a strong grasp. The exertion made 
in preventing the knife from slipping 
out of the hand is a real waste, be- 
cause it does not co-operate in cutting. 
The handle must therefore, at its end, 
be so arranged, by an upward flat bend, 
that the solid part of the hand below the little finger 
may rest upon it. When the hand is only so much closed 
that the knife may not fall out, the drawing of the arm 
accomplishes the cut without any waste of power. The 
cutting with such a knife is much more 
effective, and may be continued much 
longer without fiitigue. It is very con- 
venient for a gardener not to be compel- 
led to open the knife every time he needs 
it, but to carry it open in a case in the 
pocket, as sailors are accustomed to do. 
The knife is still more convenient 
when the blade is bent a little on the 
back towards the handle, as represented ^. 

in Figure 18. -, r. i -r 

In this case the blade is not movable, and the knite 
must be carried in a case. The handle is made of two 
pieces of wood, united by rivets with the prolongation ot 
the blade. The blade need only be half as long as that 
of the common pruning knives, the lower part of which 




88 THE GEAPE VINE. 

is never used for cutting. But tlie length of the handle 
must be independent of the length of the blade ; it must 
correspond to the size of the hand of a man ; that is, it 
must be four and a half inches (about 120 m.m.) long, and 
nearly an inch (10 lines or 32 m.m.) thick. 

The proportions of many good knives in the market are 
faulty, the handles being too -small, and the blades also 
small. 

The size of the blade is regulated by the work for which 
it is intended ; the handle, however, must fit the hand, 
which is always the same. Frequently, the springs are too 
strong, so that the knife cannot be opened without using 
great power ; it is sometimes even dangerous. 

In the shears, the axis on which the arms move is fastened 
in a wrong way, so that the screw is apt to get loose in 
using them. The cause for this wrong construction may lie 
in the gardeners themselves ; if they have no clear insight 
into the matter, they cannot give good advice to the 
manufacturers ; consequently, faulty arrangements continue 
to be handed down from one to another. Without in- 
creasing the labor and cost, those implements might be 
made much better. 

Even many horticultural books show that their authors 
do not understand the advantages of shears over knives. 
They concede that by using shears the work is done with 
greater dispatch, yet they say that the knife is better. 
The reason why shears deserve to be preferred to the 
knife, lies in the fact that shears carry, aside from the cut- 
ting knife, the resistance along with them, so that the 
stress upon the trellis or the root and vine below the cut 
is easily avoided. Shears have not only a knife, but also 
another arm towards which the cutting is directed. If the 
shears are turned a little in cutting, they bruise the branch 
as little as the knife ; for the more easily the cleft opens 
for the cutting blade, the less pressure is exerted on the 
other arm. In cuttinsr with shears it does not matter 



THE GEAPE VINE. 



89 



whether we cut high in the air, or low, near the ground ; in 
using the knife we have always to consider in what direc- 
tion we may find the resistance in order to cut in that 
which is opposite to it. 

We will give here some hints for cutters in regard to 
the best arrangement for knives and shears. 

The blades of garden knives of the modern 
pointed form. Figure 19, ought to project only 
two inches beyond the handle. The best cast 
steel should be used for them ; they ought to be 
tempered yellow, but blue near the handle. The 
rivets, on which the blade moves, ought to be 
t"2 thick, made of steel wire, and the points 
rounded. They must not be fastened by 
riveting, but should be driven into the handle 
under a strong friction, but the blade must 
move freely and easily. All blades of a given 
number should be of the same dimensions ; this 
enables the buyer to purchase two or three 
blades which may easily be exchanged by tak- 
ing out the rivet. The .blade should not have a projection 
at the end ; it ought to have a sharp edge its 
whole length. The handle, being as long as 
the hand is broad, ought to be bent back- 
wards on its lower extremity for the hand to 
rest upon it ; a little projection on the back, 
about an inch below the rivet, is very use- 
ful in holding the knife firmly; this j^rojec- a 
tion will go in between the fore and the i/ 
middle finger of the right hand. ^ 

Curved blades. Figure 20, need not be 
longer than 1 inch and -| ; their sharp edge 
must extend along their whole length; 
otherwise they do not differ from straight 
knives. The springs must be good, but not too strong ; 
the wooden handle ought to be painted red, to enable one 




Fig. 19. 




Fio-. 20. 



90 THE GRAPE VINE. 

to find them easily when lost, as the common brown color 
of the handles makes it difficult to see them on the ground. 
In shears the j)ivot is fitted in a square hole of that 
arm on which there is a nut with a screw to fasten the two 
arms together. Very frequently this nut gets loose. To 
avoid this, two nuts are put on the screw. The lowermost 
being larger, projects considerably from the uppermost. 
It has two incisions opposite each other, to receive a screw- 
driver, which is so arranged that it fits them. The second 
nut, the so called ccunternut, is screwed down to the first, 
on which it is held in place by fricti^on. 

PROPER TBIE FOR THE WORK TO BE 
PERFORMED ON THE VINE. 

"We have already, when we had occasion, pointed out 
the best time for the work to be performed on the vine 
and given the reasons for it. At present we shall explain 
the matter fully. 

The pruning of the vino ought to be done in autumn, 
immediately after the fall of the leaf. By it, the vine is 
reduced to smaller dimensions, it is easier to keep it in 
the right condition during the winter, and the wood so 
removed may be cut up and mixed with the manure. Im- 
mediately after pruning, the vine ought to be manured in 
the manner described above. 

When the vine is not to be manured, the pieces of the 
canes are cut up, and the leaves are placed where they will 
decay. It is a general custom to go over the vines in gardens 
and vineyards again in the spring, to prune a little, and then 
to tie them immediately. This procedure is altogether 
erroneous, because it renders regular pinching impossible ; 
that is the reason that the pinching is omitted in every 
vineyard. It is advisable to perform the operation of the 
last pruning, the pinching and tying at the same time ; by 



THE GEAPE VINE. 91 

this the second labor is saved. For this purpose nothing 
is done on the vine in the spring, until the time of the 
powerful rising of the sap has passed, after which the vine 
may be cut without bleeding. As nobody can tell which 
buds will produce blossoms, it is necessary to wait until 
they appear. 

With us (on the Rhine), the vine blossoms within a 
month, commencing after the first week in June. The 
last pruning of the vine, together with pinching, must 
therefore be done a little before or after blossoming. Then 
all blossom buds are developed, and the shoots, which will 
bear fruit, can be selected. Up to that tune the vine is 
suffered to swing untied about the poles, or to hang on 
the trellis. There is nothing so easily injured as the eye 
of the vine that has just started. It is broken off when 
slightly touched with the arm, or when the branch receives 
a push. When the vines are pruned and tied in March, it 
is at a time when the eyes have just pushed, and when 
they are easily injured. 

Moreover, the leader for the year cannot well be dis- 
tinguished or chosen at that time. When, on the contrary, 
the last pruning and pinching are done in the first half of 
June, it is easy to select the shoots for next year's bearing ; 
also the shoots destitute of blossoms can be seen. The 
vine is open and expanded before the vintner. 

Commencing at the base of the vme, the vintner selects 
the shoots intended for canes the next year. He is careful 
that there are not too many left on any one part of the 
stem, but that the whole number is equally distributed over 
the different heads of the stem ; then he j^roceeds with liis 
work in an upward direction, pinching all shoots which 
show blossoms at two leaves beyond the uppermost cluster, 
and removing their laterals or the buds in the axils of their 
leaves. Should there be a cane without any shoots showing 
blossoms, it is to be cut off above* the lowermost shoot. 



92 THE GEAPE VINE. 

Then nothing is left on the vine but the shoots intended 
for canes, and the pinche.d shoots with blossoms. 

It is obvious that the clusters on such a vine must be 
more perfect and better than on vines of which the shoots 
that do not bear are left to grow ; there will be at 
last a j)rofusion of useless wood and leaves to be cut off 
in the fall. As soon as the shoots not bearing are re- 
moved, the shoot for bearing canes, as w^ell as those pinch- 
ed, develops rapidly, growing so vigorously and strong, and 
maturing its wood so w^ell, that the results of this pruning 
and pinching will be far more favorable than would 
have been the case had they been treated in the common 
way. The early tying in March prevents the vintner from 
performing these operations, because it would imply the 
necessity of cutting the vines loose again, in order to have 
free access to all parts. In this way the labor of the first 
tying would be lost. I have had the experience, that the 
vines of a vineyard, tied before develoj^ment, had to be 
loosened in order to j^inch and to remove unfruitful shoots. 
A great deal of wood had to be removed, which caused 
the rest to develop, and grow the more vigorously. Pmch- 
ing and removing unfruitful shoots requires some knowl- 
edge ; therefore only experienced persons are to h-e entrust- 
ed with this operation, while others, receiving loAver wages, 
may be employed to tie them up. To recapitulate : my 
rule is not to do any thing to the vine, either in the vine- 
yard or in the garden, before all the blossoms are visible 
and developed, and then to remove unfruitful shoots, and 
to perform pinching and tying at the same time. 

I see now, clearly, why vignerons are so much opposed 
to pinching. If they do not discontinue their custom of 
tying in March, they of course cannot do anything to 
them in June. The first step would be, to dispense with 
the operations performed in March ; but that would be 



THE GEAPE YIXE. 93 

conflicting too much with the habits and prejudices of 
the vignerons, which are paramount to every thing else. 
Besides, the spring work done to the vine, when deferred 
till June, is profitable in a pecuniary point of view. In 
March, plowing and sowing are to be done m the fields ; 
therefore help is always scarce. In the beginning of 
June, there is an ebb in agriculture ; grain, potatoes, etc., 
are growing and do not require any work ; mow^ing is to 
be done a little later, consequently it is, at this season, easy 
enough to procure the necessary help. I request intelli- 
gent cultivators of the vine to follow my example in pinch- 
ing and tying late, and then to report the result in public 
prints. 

The eflect of removing useless shoots of the vine ex- 
tends not only over the current, but also over the follow- 
ing year. When unfruitful shoots are suffered to remain, 
an enormous quantity of shoots and leaves is produced, 
so that the sap, furnished by the root, is not sufficient to 
mature them. The consequence is, that a large number of 
eyes on the shoots intended for canes cannot produce 
blossoms, but only unfruitful shoots in the following year. 

The same is clearly seen in all fruit trees.' If all shoots 
are suffered to grow undisturbed, many fruit trees do not 
bear for years, that is, not until the root is sufficiently de- 
veloped for the vv^ood growth, as well as for the forma- 
tion of blossom buds. But if, in the latter part of the 
summer, the tops of the twigs are broken off*, the lower 
eyes are changed to fruit buds for the following year. If 
this pinching is done too early, the lower eyes push, and 
the object sought is not accomplished. In the vine the 
period is very late in the season, at which pinching does 
not excite the lower eyes into growth. The less favorable 
the weather, the more the vine must be restricted to pro- 
duce fruit buds in the next year. 



94 THE GEAPE VIN^E. 

CONSTITUENTS OF THE YINE, ACCORDING TO 
THE PROPORTION IN WHICH THEY ARE DIS- 
TRIBUTED IN THE DIFFERENT PARTS. 

The inorganic constituents, that is, those contained in 
the ashes are the same in all parts of the vine, yet in pro- 
portions varying a little ; even the ashes from all parts of a 
certain kind, mixed together, differ a little from those of 
other kinds. These constituents amount in the canes to 
from 2.25 to 2.85 per cent., in the small Burgundy to 3.692 
per cent., if the boiling point of the water is taken to de- 
termine their dryness. The must, without exsiccation, 
contains in unripe, blue grapes 0.259 per cent., in ripe ones 
0.34 per cent., from another place 0.409 per cent, of ashes. 

The skins of the little Burgundy, dried at the temper- 
ature of 212°, contain 3.T3T per cent., of the Schoenfeilner 
4.321 per cent. ; the seeds of the small Burgundy, dried 
at 212% 2.776 per cent., those of the Schoenfeilner 2.882 
per cent, of ashes. In these ashes, potash and phosphoric 
acid preponderate so much, that we will only mention their 
relative amount ; otherwise we should have to go into an 
elaborate detail. 

Ashes. Percent of Per cent, of 

Potash. phosphoric acid. 

1) Of^tbe seeds ot the blue grapes 27.868 27.005 

2) Of\lic seeds of white grapes 29.454 21.054 

3) Of wood from canes (fittle Burgundy). 37. 309 9.587 

4) Of the Bkins of blue grapes 44.656 7.055 

5) Of the must of white grapes 62.745 17.044 

6) Of the must of ripe blue grapes 65.043 16.578 

7) Of the must of unripe blue grapes 66.334 15.378 

8) Of the must of ripe blue grapes 71.853 14.073 

(Plaenermergel.) 

In the first column, the constituents are a.rranged ac- 
cordino" to the increasing amount of potash ; in the second 
column tlie amount of phosphoric acid is decreasing near- 
ly in the same ratio ; the proportion of phosphoric acid, 
contained in the must, is different from that contained in 



THE GEAPE VINE. 95 

the body of the vine. But in the four kinds of must 
phosphoric acid decreases also, in the same ratio in which 
the amomit of potash increases. This circumstance is too 
regular to be accidental ; but its significance is, as yet, un- 
known. It is evident from this that the greatest amount 
of potash and phosphoric acid is carried "but of the vine- 
yard along with the wine. 

The smallest amount of potash, that is, from 3 to 5 per 
cent., is contained in the must ; a larger amount, ^.6., from 
20 to 21 per cent, in the ashes of the skins ; a still greater 
amount, le., from 32 to 35 per cent, in the ashes of the 
seed ; the greatest, however, i.e., from 36 to 43|- per cent. 
in the ashes of canes. The amount of soda is, on the 
whole, small, viz. : 1 per cent, in the ashes of must, and 3 
per cent, in those of canes ; that of sulphuric acid is in 
the ashes of the vine, from 2 to 3 per cent., in those of the 
must 5 per cent. 

The organic constituents are distributed in the follow- 
ing proportion : 

Old wood and that from canes contain starch. If wood 
be cut in small pieces and boiled in water, the liquid turns 
blue by adding a solution of iodine. Unripe w^ood does 
not contain starch. The peduncles of the grape contain 
some of it in the middle of the summer, but not after- 
wards, because it goes back into the vine. The berry is 
the only part of the vine which contains sugar ; it is not 
found in any other. In the juice of the ripe berry there 
are tartaric and malic 'acid, bitartrate of jDotash, and 
vegetable albumen, but no tannic acid, either in white or 
blue grapes. 

Free acid decreases in the ratio in which the grape 
matures, until it reaches that amount which is proportionate 
to the variety or the temperature of the year. After hav- 
ing reached this point the acid seems to again increase a 
little. If the free acid is considered as crystallized tartaric 



96 THE GRAPE VINE. 

acid, the results of experiments, made in the year 1858, 
with juice obtained from pressing, were the following : 

1. Trollinger ( Frankentlial, Black Hamburg)— Acid per Mill. 

August 15, entirely unripe, 31. 

August 30, unripe, 31.5 

September 11, not ripe, but colored a little, 28. 

October 23, ripe, 13. . 

November 4, ripe, 13. 

2. Burgundy. 

August 15, entirely unripe, 34.5 

August 30, entirely unripe, 34. 

September 11, part blue and part still green, 17.5 

October 15, ripe, 12. 

October 23, ripe 9. 

November 4, ripe, 9. 

3. White Chasselas. 

August 15, entirely unripe, 34. 

August 30, ripening, 15. 

September 11, eatable, but not quite ripe, 11.5 

October 15, perfectly ripe, 6. 

October 23, 6. 

November 4, 7.5 

These experiments show that the acid in 1 and 2 did not 
dimmish from October 23 to November 4, but that in 3 
it increased one and a half thousandths. 

The skins of the berries contain tannin. This is shown 
by boiling them in water and adding a few drojjs of chlo- 
ride of iron to the strained liquid, and then a solution of 
bicarbonate of soda. The color of the liquid is then 
changed to that of ink. Furthermore the skins of blue 
grapes contain the coloring matter which, in its composi- 
tion, is very similar to that of tannin. 

The seeds contain a large amount of tannin, and about 
5 per cent, of fat oil, but it would cost more to press it 
out than it is worth. It has a somewhat greenish color, 
and belongs to the drying oils. If it could be had, it would 
be useful for many purposes. If the seeds remain in the 
juice while fermenting, the tannin is exhausted from them, 
as is the case in red wines. A preparation, containing 



THE GEAPE VINE. 97 

tannin, can be made fi'om the seeds when extracted with 
wine or alcohol; it is made nse of in the management of 
wine in the cellar. 

The peduncles of the grapes, called combs, contain 
much tannin as well as free acid. Their taste is acerb 
and sour. What they impart to the wine, is injurious ; 
neither do they contribute anything to its agreeable taste 
or to its durabihty. There are, therefore, three parts con- 
taining tannic acid, namely — the skins, the seeds and the 
,combs ; it is necessary to take cognizance of this distribu- 
tion in making wine. Concerning the proportion of the 
weight of the must and the other parts of the grape, ex- 
periments have shown the following : 

Berries of the white Chasselas, picked from the combs 
and powerfully pressed, yield, 

Of juice, 97 per cent. 

Of skins, seeds and solid substance, 3 " 

Berries' of the blue Burgundy, picked from the combs, 
yield. 

Of juice, - - - - • - 94.8 per cent. 
Of skins, seeds and solid substance, 5.2 " 

Berries of the blue Burgundy, pressed together with the 
combs, yield. 

Of juice, 91.8 per cent. 

Of combs, skins, seeds and solid 
substance, - - . . 9 '< 

The remains .of blue Burgundy grapes, fermented and 
then pressed, yielded. 

Of wine, - - - - - 69.6 per cent. 
Of remains, - - - . 30.4 " 

From these experiments the great loss in wine, suffered 

by the vigneron, who generally throws away the pressed 

husks, is clearly seen ; it amounts to 70 per cent, of the 

weight of the husks. The same is true in regard to the 

5 



98 THE GRAPE VINE. 

loss of must in the husks of white wine, when they are re- 
moved before the fermentation. There is no press power- 
ful enough to overcome, by mechanical force, this almost 
chemical affinity. They cannot be efiectually pressed out 
until the cells are opened by fermentation. Raspberries 
and gooseberries are similar, in this respect, to grapes. 



HINTS 

ON THE PROPAGATION AND GENERAL TREATMENT OF 

AMERICAN VARIETIES. 



BY 

THE TRANSLATOR. 



PROPAGxVTION OF THE GRAPE VINE. 

As the propagation of the Continental varieties of the 
vine is attended with so little difficulty, that it cannot be 
compared with that of the American species and their 
varieties, Dr. Mohr's excellent work w^ould not, in this 
respect, give satisfaction to the American reader. To 
make additions and alterations w^ould have been very in- 
convenient; we have, therefore, preferred to omit Dr. 
Mohr's chapter on propagation, altogether, and to insert 
here a brief description of the methods used in this country 
for the propagation of the native vine, and practiced by 
ourselves. Growers of the grape, on a large scale, will 
resort to more extensive and complicated arrangements. 
They will find a detailed description of them in Fuller's 
Grape CuUurist, a thoroughly practical work on the man- 
agement of the vine. 



100 THE GRAPE VINE. 

I.— BY LAYERS. 

Layering is an easy and certain way to obtain young 
plants, and consists in bending a cane or a green shoot 
down to the ground, and covering it with soil. The part 
so buried will be found well rooted in the fall. 

To make a layer of a ca.ne (old wood), make a little 
ditch four or six inches deep and long enough to receive 
the cane. This must, of course, be made near the vine, 
but so that the roots of it may not be injured. If this 
cannot be avoided, the smallest roots being so near the 
surface of the ground, it is better to make the ditch at a 
little distance from the vine, and to bury only a part of 
the cane, the rest remaining above ground. Early in the 
spring, before the buds commence swelling, the cane is laid 
down into the ditch, and kept in place by pegs or stones. 
When the shoots from the cane have grown a few inches, 
four or six of them are selected and retained; all others are 
rubbed off, especially those starting from buds on the 
lower side of the cane. Then fine and rich soil is thrown 
into the ditch, but not more than about an inch deep at 
a time. This filling in must be gradually continued in 
proportion as the shoots grow, until the ditch is full. Too 
much soil at once, while the shoots are too young and 
succulent, might cause their decay. The fewer the plants 
taken from a cane the stronger they will be. Fruit 
bearing is a natural, but exhausting, process ; it is, there- 
fore, a bad practice to take fruit from those shoots, as 
some do. The vine roots so easily that it is not necessary 
to notch it between the joints, as it is customary in layer- 
ing other plants. 

Li the autumn, after the fall of the leaf, the cane is 
severed fi'om the stem and carefully lifted with a digging 
fork, so as not to break or mutilate the roots of the young 
plants. It is then cut into as many pieces as there are 
plants. 



THE GRAPE VINE. 101 

Should a dngle plant only be desired, the cnne may be 
pruned shorter, bent down into the ditch and covered at 
once with soil, except the last (highest) bud. This must 
remain just above ground ; therefore, the cane must be 
bent abruptly upwards at the end of the ditch, and kept 
in place by a peg or stone. A little stick should indicate 
the place ; otherwise the eye or the shoot from it may in- 
advertently be destroyed. A layer of this kind made in 
a basket or box of lattice work, filled with good soil and" 
set in the ground, is easily raised in the fall, and planted, 
without disturbing it, where it is intended to grow. The 
roots • protruding from the basket or box must be pre- 
served with the utmost care; the receptacle will soon 
decay, and a whole year will he gained^ To recommend^ 
as some do, such box-layer plants for immediate bearing, 
is, to say the least, wrong. It is time that those unac- 
quainted with the management of the vine should be cau- 
tioned against buying vines of this kind for extravagant 
prices. Box-layers, if properly managed and planted, are 
very good, indeed, but not for immediate bearing. 

Also wood, two years old, roots easily enough, so that 
a cane which has borne fruit may be used for layering in- 
stead of cutting it off in the fall. 

Layers may also be made of young green shoots or of 
the tops of them, in July. All that is necessary is, to 
cover a part, or the top of a green shoot with soil. I gen- 
erally put a good-sized stone on it; it keeps. the shoot in 
place, prevents the moisture from evaporating, and equal- 
izes the temperature. Of course, the projecting top must 
not be injured. Notching, in summer layering, is useful, 
but not indispensable. If the shoot is too young or the 
notch too deep or too long, the part above it is apt to 
wither. From strong shoots, beautiful plants are obtained 
in this way. 



102 THE GEAPE VINE. 

n.— BY CUTTINGS. 

Cuttings are pieces of either old wood of the previous 
year, or of young green wood of the current year, each 
having one eye at least, mostly two or more. When 
planted in soil or sand, under suitable conditions, they 
root very easily, making good plants. 

We consider here, first, long cuttings from old wood. 
In some, especially southern, countries, such as are several 
feet long, are preferred ; in others, such as are a foot or 
eighteen inches long. At present there is a tendency to 
make them only six inches long, even shorter, in short- 
jointed varieties. The wood is preserved in sand, or in 
common garden soil in a cellar, or at the north side of a 
building till wanted ; it ought to be protected from freez- 
ing. At the approach of sj^ring the wood so preserved is 
cut into small pieces of the length required. The lower 
cut must be horizontal immediately below a bud ; above, it 
is slanting on the side opposite, the bud, but at the dis- 
tance of about an inch from it. Altliough it is better to 
make the lower horizontal cut immediately below an eye, 
yet this is not absolutely necessary, as the vine quickly 
roots also from the internodes (the space between two 
buds). Such a cutting, with a piece of still older wood at- 
tached to it, from which the shoot grew, is called a ham- 
tner cutting. Hammer cuttings were very much preferred 
by the Romans, ani are especially recommended, at pres- 
ent, for the Delaware and other hard-wooded varieties. 
They are only occasionally obtained, unless the laterals are 
suffeied to grow and to ripen their wood on a cane, which 
may, in this case, be divided into as many hammer cut- 
tings as there are laterals. The pieces of the cane itself 
must be half an inch or an inch long. 

Cuttings, so prepared, must be tied in bundles, carefully 
labeled and preserved in sand, till the weather is warm 



THE GRAPE VINE. 103 

enough, in the middle of April or beginning of May for 
planting them. 

Some put them, about eight or ten days before planting, 
two or three inches deep in water till the eyes begin to 
swell. In this^way I often succeeded in making Delaware 
cuttings root in the open air. By accident a number of 
j^ieces of that variety, lying in water, had been forgotten ; 
when found, I planted them in clayey soil in the garden, 
when every one of them grew. I made this accidental 
experiment known in the " Horticulturist." (See 1863, 
p. 160). 

The planting must be done with care. To make holes 
with a dibble is certainly a rough practice. Not only are 
the sides of the hole pressed by it into a solid mass, offer- 
ing much resistance to the rootlets, but the lower (cut) 
part of the cutting is too often injured by thrusting it 
into the hole. It is also in this case dilficult to press the 
soil firmly around the lower part, which is essential. 

It is much better to make the holes or ditch with a 
spade. Long cuttings are planted in a slanting position, 
in order not to bury their lower ends too deep in the 
ground. They cannot grow without being excited by the 
warmth of the soil, imparted by the sun. The upper eye 
must either be at a level with the surface of the ground, 
or a quarter of an inch below it. A little sand or moss 
placed on it will prevent it from drying up before it starts. 
That such cuttings ought occasionally to be watered, when 
necessary, does not require any special explanation. 

The advantas^e claimed for cutting more than six inches 
long, is more specious and imaginary, than real and true. 
It is true, there are very many nodes in the ground, each 
of which may emit roots ; but experience shows that every 
node of so long a piece of a cane does not emit roots, and 
so much wood without roots when buried in the ground, 
is apt to decay. The same object is accomplished, but 
with certainty and without danger, by layering the cane, 



104 THE GEAPE VIXE. 

growing from a cutting, in one or several successive 
years. 

It is advisable to remove the brownish epidermis from 
the lower end of a cutting, say for about two or three 
inches. It may easily be done, after the ci^tting has been 
kept in water several days previous. It is so hard that 
the young roots penetrate it with difficulty. Also the 
remaining parts of the bases of the foot stalks of tke leaves 
ought to be scraped off; for fungoid growths destructive 
to the eyes above them form there easily. 

In some parts of Germany, for instance, near HeiTbronn 
on the Neckar, the cuttings, tied in bundles of about fifty 
or a hundred, several weeks previous to planting, are buried 
in the ground, but in an inverted position, that is, their 
tops downwards and their cut ends upwards. They are 
then covered with moss and soil, four or five inches deep, 
in a very sunny exposure, and kept moist. When taken 
out, most of them will be found rooted. 

From JDubreniVs work. Culture perfectionee^ etc.^ du 
vignohle, Paris, 1863, pp. 30 and 31, it appears that the 
vine cuttings are not unfrequently so treated in France. 
I called the attention of those interested to this process. 
(See Horticulturist, 1864, pp. 61, 62, 140 and 141). 

Mr. Wm. Patrick, nurseryman at Terre Haute, Ind., 
has very much improved it. After a short notice, given 
in the Gardener's Monthly, he has furnished a full account 
of his method to the horticultural Annual^ published by 
Orange Judd &> Co., 1867, from which I make an extract : 

" Before the ground freezes, the cuttings, from four to 
six inches long, are tied in bundles of about fifty each, and 
the lower ends puddled by dipping them half their length 
in mud, made of loamy soil, mixed with water to about 
the consistency of cream. They are then, lower ends down,^ 
put in cold frames, fine soil is sprinkled over them to fill 
the spaces between the bundles, and they are then covered 
about four inches deep with earth. After they have been 



THE GRAPE VINE. 105 

rained upon, and it begins to freeze, they are covered 
with leaves or straw, and sheltered by boards. 

" In the spring, the mulch having been removed, sashes 
are laid on, but so that enough ventilation is provided ; 
water is given, when needed, and so they root in about 
five weeks. 

" Without sashes they will root, likewise, when treated in 
the manner just described. In this case they must be 
buried in an exposure inclined to the south. Should no 
roots have started in some of the cuttings, two pieces of 
bark, two or three inches long, on opposite sides of the 
lower ends of the cuttings, are taken oft' with a sharp knife. 
Treated and planted in this way, they make excellent 
plants. Cuttings of single eyes can be made to grow in 
the same way just as easily as longer cuttings. 

" This plan is especially adapted to cuttings from the 
Delaware and other hard-wooded varieties." 

Diel says in his well known and highly valued work, 
" Fruit Trees in Pots," third edition, Frankfort-on-the- 
Main, 1804, p. 212. "We had never succeeded in raising 
Paradise stocks for dwarfing the apple, from cuttings. By 
treating such cuttings as described in the above, I am 
raising hundreds of them every year. I keep the cuttings 
in sand during the winter, and bury them, in the spring, 
as soon as the frost is fairly out of the ground, in a sun- 
ny spot, the top ends downwards, and cover their lower 
ends, (which are, of course, up,) with moss three or four 
inches deep, sprinkling them, Avhen needed, with luke- 
warm water. This method is applicable in raising j^lants 
from a number of shrubs and trees. As it is not generally 
known or practiced, I deem it my duty to thoroughly 
recommend it." '' 

CUTTINGS MADE OF SINGLE EYES. 

They are made by cutting a cane into as many pieces 
as it has well developed eyes on perfectly ripe wbod ; when 
5* 



106 THE GEAPE VINE. 

an inch and a Imlf long, so that there is an inch of wood 
below, and half an inch of wood above the bud, they are 
of the right size. The cuts may be made by means of a 
knife or of good garden shears, which are now so made 
that they do not bruise, but make a clean cut. 

The eyes, so prepared, ought to be put in water and 
left there for ten or twelve hours. This will soften the 
remnants of the base of the leaf-stalk, so that it may easily 
be removed by scraping. If such cuttings can be made 
during the months of January and February, it is advisa- 
ble to pack them in moist, not wet, moss or sand, and to 
keep them there, free from frost, till wanted for planting. 
Hard wood varieties, especially the Delaware^ grow with 
certainty from single eye cuttings treated in this way. 

Cuttings of single eyes do not grow very easily in the 
open air, when planted in beds; either frames with a 
gentle heat must be prepared for them, or a propagating 
bench in a green-house must be " arranged for them. 
Although a tank, connected with a heating boiler, in which 
Avater, heated by the boiler, circulates, is, beyond question, 
the best arrangement, " yet a common flue, enclosed by 
two brick walls, three feet distant from each other, and 
covered by the propagating boxes, answers a very good 
purpose. The bottom of these boxes consists of slate or 
tin, resting on cross-strips, extending from one side-board 
to the other. If these side-boards are from eight to nine 
inches wide, and if the boxes are filled with w^ashed sand 
to the depth of four inches, there is room enough for tlie 
young plants to develop and grow sufficiently, before they 
are planted out. The distance of the bottom of the boxes 
from the flue must, of course, be so regulated, that the 
heat reaching the bottom shall not be too great. As 
such flues generally rise a little along their whole length, 
the top of the flue, near its inlet, is further removed from 
the bottom of the flue, than towards it outlet. The boxes, 
being -level, are, therefore, nearer to the flue towards its 



THE GRAPE VIXE. 107 

outlet, than at the beginning. Besides, flat stones or bricks 
may be laid on the flue near the fire-place, and two open- 
ings ought to be made in the inside wall, closed with shut- 
ters. In this way the temperature derived may easily be 
regulated and maintained. 

To cover the propagating boxes either with sashes, or 
calico or paper frames, is a very good plan to regulate 
the moisture and to shade the cuttings. 

The cuttings are planted immediately in the sand, or in 
pots plunged into it. Some set them straight, others in a 
slanting position, but, at all events, deep enough to have 
the eye just at a level with the sand, or covered about a 
quarter or half an inch by it. Many lay them horizontally 
on the sand, pack them on, and cover them about a quarter 
or half an inch deep with it. There exists also a dif- 
ference of opinion in regard to the form of the cuttings ; 
but the method, detailed in the above, is certain in its re- 
sults, provided the right temj^erature and a proper degree 
of moisture are provided. 

The principle of the proper treatment of such cuttings 
is based on the laws of vegetable physiology. It is con- 
tained in the following : In order to facilitate the emis- 
sion of roots^ the lower ends of the cuttings must he kept 
during a certain period in a temperature that is several 
degrees higher than that which surrounds their tops. At 
the outset, a temperature of from forty to fifty degrees is 
sufficient ; this is to be raised gradually to seventy-five or 
eighty, still later, even to ninety degrees when the cuttings 
grow vigorously and are well rooted. In general, it is 
much better not to increase the bottom heat too much. 
At the time when the cuttings are placed in the sand, it is 
not difficult to maintain a temperature in the house which 
is lower than that in the propagating boxes ; later, a higher 
temperature of the house has no deleterious eflect. 

As soon as the cuttings are placed in the sand, they 
must be thoroughly sprinkled with water, so that all the 



108 THE GRAPE VINE. 

sand is moistened. The sand must never become too dry. 
When the cuttings are watered once a day, or in the be- 
ginning even less frequently, it is sufficient. The condi- 
tion of the sand itself is a never failing guide in this sim- 
ple operation. It is hardly necessary to caution here 
against the use of cold water. It must be warmed a little, 
either on the fire, or by adding hot water. As to the best 
time for planting cuttings, it is advisable not to be in too 
great haste. For long cuttings to be grown out of doors, 
the middle, or even the end, of April or the beginning of 
May is the time most suitable ; for single eyes the begin- 
ning of March is best, although the process is often com- 
menced very early in the winter. Long cuttings remain 
in the place where they are planted until fall or even until 
the spring following, but in this case under sufficient 
covering. They are then taken up and heeled-in, if this 
takes place in the fall, or planted where they are intended 
to grow. Those not sufficiently well rooted are planted 
in fertile soil, after their roots have been shortened a little, 
to grow there another season before they are planted in 
the places assigned to them. 

Cuttings of one eye each are either taken out of the sand 
and planted in small pots, and frequently transplanted 
into larger ones, or into borders made in the open air, which 
is preferable. In the latter case furrows several inches 
deep are made, at the bottom of which the young plants 
are put, in little holes, so deep that the woody part of the 
cuttings is covered ; the roots, which are very brittle, must 
not be injured, but spread evenly, so that they retain their 
natural position; then the hole is filled with water that is 
not too cold, and the holes are filled with fine soil before 
the water has time to sink in the ground. 

The soil around the cuttings must not be pressed down, 
but they must be left in the condition in which water and 
soil placed them. To protect them during the first weeks 
by sashes, or calico frames, is deemed essential by some. 



THE GRAPE VINE. 100 

Others assert that when planted as described, they never 
suffer from the sun or the weather. I always shelter them 
for several w^eeks, and sprinkle them w^ith water as often 
as required. 

When they are growing vigorously, the soil is to be 
drawn towards their stems by filling up the furrows in 
which they have been planted. 

It is astonishing to observe their growth when so plant- 
ed and treated. 

Last summer my cuttings made plants as thick as a 
goose quill, from twelve to fifteen feet long. I never tie 
them to sticks, but permit them to trail on the ground. 
This form is intermediate between cuttings made of old 
wood and those made of green shoots. Such cuttings, 
even of hard wooded kinds like the Delaware, root 
very easily. 

CUTTINGS FROM GREEN SHOOTS WITH A 
PIECE OF THE CANE (OLD WOOD) AT- 
TACHED TO IT. 

When the young slioots in May have attained the length 
of about four inches, they are cut off from the cane, so that 
about an inch or two inches of old w^ood below the shoot 
is preserved, and about half an inch above it. If the green 
shoots are a little too long, their tops must be removed. 
They are then so planted in sand that the old wood lies 
horizontally in it, and is covered half an inch or an inch 
deep. 

The green shoots are then in an erect position. No 
bottom heat is required, though a little of it does not in- 
jure them. Nearly every one of the cuttings made in this 
way grows ; they will be found rooted in a short time, 
and make very fine and vigorous plants. They are planted 
out and treated in precisely the same way as described in 
the above. I accidentally discovered this method of propa- 



^ 



110 THE GKAPE VINE. 

gating vines several j'^ars ago. It was, however, known 
to others long before I discovered it, as Mr. P. B. Mead, 
the then Editor of the Horticulturist, informed me. 

I described the plan several years ago in that magazine. 
(See 1864, p. Gl, and 1865, pp. 140 and 141). 

CUTTINGS MADE OF GREEN SHOOTS. 

Such cuttings grow very easily, when managed in the 
right Avay. They are cut from the cane, and shortened to 
two or three buds, removing the leaves, except the upper- 
most. The lowest part of the shoot, being firmer and 
more solid than the upper part, is to be preferred ; still 
even the upper part will, under proper management, grow. 
The cut, by which the cutting is severed from the cane, 
or fi-om the shoot, must always be made below a bud. 
The bud may not be discernible at the base of the shoot ; 
but if the shoot is cut off exactly at the place where it 
proceeds from the cane, along with a ?;ery thin slice of the 
latter, the cutting will be in the right condition. Sand is 
the best material for making such cuttings grow. A mod- 
erate bottom heat is very desirable, but not absolutely in- 
dispensable. Several years ago, I saw a large number of 
them grow on the propagating bench in one of the houses 
of my friends, the Messrs. Parsons, at Flushing. The 
house was kept very warm, but no bottom heat had been 
given. 

It is of vital importance to regulate the watering with 
the greatest care ; they must, of course, be shaded, when 
required, and the atmosphere around them must be kej^t 
damp, but not so damp as to cause their decay. 

According to a communication from Mr. Pr. Rubens, 
(author of a valuable work on the culture of the vine,) in a 
letter to me, cuttings of green shoots about 18 inches long, 
when planted during the summer in holes a foot deep, will 
grow in the open air. 



THE GEAPE VINE. Ill 

When well rooted, such cuttings are treated in precise- 
ly the same way as others. In order to make them strong 
plants, they must be transj^lanted several times, that is, 
in successive years, shortening their roots a little each 
time. 

The question has often been discussed, which kind of 
cuttings makes the best plants. From the experience of 
intelligent and skillful cultivators of the vine, it appears 
now to be an established fact, that good plants may, under 
a suitable treatment, be obtained, whatever method may 
be used. Cuttings, however, made of single eyes, are 
generally considered the best; they unite, indeed, so 
many advantages in them, that I do not hesitate to re- 
commend them as preferable. 

III.— BY GRAFTING. 

The term grafting we use here in its broadest sense, 
including, like the French word greffe, not only grafting 
proper, but also inarching, budding, etc. 

Common cleft grafting is performed in the usual way, 
either in March or April, or in May after two or three 
leaves are expanded on the stock, because the Adne does 
not then bleed any more. It may be done below ground, 
which insures better success, or above ground, which is, 
if possible, to be avoided. 

The stock is to be cut off horizontally below the ground, 
first removing the soil, pared smooth, and split. The 
scion, which must be in a dormant state, is cut to two 
eyes, the lower one of which must be just above the cut, 
after the wedge-shaped part of it has been inserted in the' 
cleft, and carefully adjusted. If the stock is thick enough, 
no tying is required ; the application of grafting wax is rec- 
ommended by some, but cautioned against by others. 
The soil is then. replaced and heaped up a little, in order to 
cover the upper eye about a quarter of an inch deep with 



112 THE GRAPE VlIfE. 

soil. As in cuttings, the scion must not be cut off too 
close above the upj^er eye ; a piece, an inch long, must be 
left. 

Mr. Andrew S. Fuller prefers the fall as the best season 
for grafting. The scion must, in this case, be protected 
from the frost by covering it with a flower-pot, earth and 
straw, which are to be removed as soon as the frost is fairly 
out of the ground. 

Grafting is of little use, except under 2)articular circum- 
stances, and failures are so common, that it never will be 
generally adopted as a means of propagating the vine. 
It is asserted by Dr. Stayman, of Kansas, a scientific viti- 
CLilturist, that taking off the bark from the stock, as well 
as from the scion, as far as the latter is inserted into the 
former, and not splitting the stock through to the opposite 
side, renders success certain. 

Pieces of succulent roots six or eight inches long, 
dug towards the end of March and in the be'ginning 
of April, are very convenient for grafting. They ought 
to be so selected and cut, that each of them has 
some fibrous roots. They may be either cleft or splice 
grafted, tied firmly with worsted or other elastic woolen 
yarn, and kept in sand until the weather gets warm, 
that is, about the middle of April, when they may 
be planted at once in the garden. y.I always cover the 
horizontal cuts of them, when they are cleft grafted, witli 
a little liquid grafting wax. Although scions with one 
eye will grow, yet I prefer greatly such as have two eyes, 
and plant the root grafts, if necessary on account of their 
length, in a slanting position, but never too shallow. The 
uppermost eye should touch the ground; it should .be 
covered a little either with soil, sand, or moss. 

We shall not devote any more space here to describing 
more artificial and complicated modes of grafting, nor 
shall we recommend budding in a peculiar way, as prac- 
tised occasionally by some amateurs. 



THE GEAPE VIXE. llo 

Grafting grapes below ground and root grafting have 
the disadvantage in common that the scions throw out 
roots of their own. However desirable this may be in 
vigorous growers and hardy kinds, yet if the scions are 
taken from kinds having weak and feeble roots, such 
roots, emitted by the scions, will unfailingly impart feeble- 
ness to the plant, and paralyze the strengthening influence 
of the stock. 

INARCHING GREEN SHOOTS INTO GREEN 
SHOOTS OF GROWING STOCKS. 

Last summer I had the good fortune of making the ac- 
quaintance of Dr. Charles Kenworthy, a gentleman re- 
cently from Australia. An enthusiastic amateur, and a 
close and keen observer, he, in almost daily conversations 
with me about scientific and practical- viticulture, called 
my attention again to propagating the vine by green 
shoots, inarched into the green shoots of a growing vine. 
Years ago, I had, with success, grafted pieces of green 
shoots into the green shoots of growing vines, as stated 
and described in the Horticulturist, 186:2, pp. 14 to 17, but 
as the procedure is rather too slow for this fast going 
country, I did not expect that any advantage would be 
derived from it. Otherwise it is similar in its efiects to 
inarching, in making the vine dependent on the roots of 
the stock exclusively. 

Inarching green shoots into green shoots is equally 
successful under glass and in the open air. The two 
\ines to be united must be near enough to each other 
to efiect the union. The stronger and the more vig- 
orous the shoots the better. A little of the bark 
and the underlying green substance of them is re- 
moved about an inch or an inch and a half long, and 
both are then tongued their whole length, the vine 
to be propagated, from helow upwards, the stock, 



114 THE GRAPE VINE. 

from above doionvmrds. As tlie young shoots are very 
brittle, two persons are needed to perform the operation, 
one of them holding and steadying the vine tongued, 
the other operating npon the other, and miiting them. 
The tongue of the stock must go fy^omheloio V2:>wards into 
the tongued place of the other. Both are then tied rather 
firmly with oiled silk, on which a few grape leaves are put 
or folded together to keep the wounds cool and protect it 
from the influence of the direct rays of the sun. 

About a fortnight after the operation, the stock must 
be cut ofl" an inch or so above the junction ; a week later, a 
cut is made into the vine to be 2:)ropagated ; this is made 
deeper, a few days later, and the vine is cut entirely off as 
soon as the union is complete. Then the leaves and the 
worsted are removed also. It is easy enough to deter- 
mine, by occasionally examining the vines, so united, the 
proper time for the several steps to be taken. Eight ex- 
periments, made in my grounds under glass or in the open 
air, proved to be eight successes, although it was not only 
too late in the season when they Avere made, but the 
stocks as well as the other vines were growing poorly. 
Some of them were not thicker than a middle-sized knit- 
ting needle ; consequently they could not be tongued, but 
were only wounded and tied together. The union in all 
of them is perfect ; after the lapse of a year or two it will 
be impossible to distinguish it. 

If it is true, as I believe from actual experience, that the 
cause of the failure of many kinds lies m the root, inarch- 
ing will be a means of making feeble growing vines strong ; 
perhaps even some of the hardier foreigners may, in this 
way, be inured to our changeable climate. It is impossi- 
ble for me to make, in the. course of this spring and sum- 
mer, as many and as extensive experiments as I intended ; 
still, from what I know already, I am confident of great 
advantages to be derived from this process. We would 
bring this method of propagation to the attention of 



THE GRAPE VINE. 115 

liorticulturists, feeling that it lias heretofore been unduly 
neglected. 

IV.— BY SEEDS. 

As no plant is more apt to sport than the vine, when 
grown from the seed, this method of propagation must be 
resorted to in order to raise varieties diiferent from those 
already in existence. 

The best and ripest berries are selected, and either 
immediately planted, whole, about half an inch or an inch 
deep, and protected by leaves, moss, or straw, from too se- 
vere freezing, or they may be dried without artificial heat, 
and the seeds may be taken out in the spring and planted. 
The plan adopted by me is, to separate the seeds from 
the pulp, as soon as the berries are ripe, and to plant them 
in pots, filled with light, but fertile soil, which I keep during 
the winter in the cellar, sjjrinkling several times Avith a 
little water. In the month of March following I place the 
j)ots in a window of a warm room, or j^lunge them in a 
hot or propagating bed, watering them regularly. The 
seeds, separated from the pulp, may also be kept in papers 
and planted in the following spring in pots or in the open 
air. To shade the young plants a little, when they are 
growing in tlie open air, is very beneficial. A. S. Fuller 
sows, for this purpose, apple seeds along with the grape 
seeds, or in a row, immediately before them to the south. 
The young apple trees do not make many fibrous roots 
the first year ; they do not, therefore, interfere with the 
vines, but afford them shade, and, in a measure, support. 
That the young plants must be watered in dry weather, 
and that they must be kept clean, need not expressly be 
recommended. 

In the autumn, after the fall of the leaf, they are to be 
taken up and heeled-in, which is more advisable than to 
cover them up, as the frost v^ould heave them up more or 



1J6 THE GRAPE VINE. 

less, and would break many of their roots. In the spring 
their roots are shortened a little, they are pruned down to 
the lowest good bud, and planted in furrows several inches 
deep. In the course of the summer the furrows are filled 
up. The young plants are then treated exactly like other 
young vines. They will bear in the fifth year, but some 
of them will do so in the third or fourth, others in the sixth 
or seventh years. 

When whole berries are planted, young plants will come 
up, not only in the first spring after j^lanting, but also in 
the second and third, as stated by Mr. E. Bull, of Con- 
cord, Mass., the originator of the Concord. Therefore, 
in lifting young plants grown from planting whole ber- 
ries in the first fall, care should be taken to disturb the 
soil as little as possible. 

The process of raising vines from seed is very tedious, 
and unsatisfactory in its results. The seeds from Ameri- 
can varieties produce a large proportion of male (stami- 
nate) plants ; they often are, and that is the rule, inferior 
to the parent. In five thousand seedlings, raised at one 
time by Dr. Grant, there were but two worthy to be pre- 
served, the lona and the Israella. Among five hundred 
seedlings from the Isabella which I have grown, there is 
but one better than the mother plant. A most excellent 
white grape from a seed of a Crimean grape, which is per- 
fectly hardy and vigorous in my grounds, is the re'sult from 
planting but two seeds. This is, however, so rare an ac- 
cident that it may not happen again in a century. A full 
description of the grape in question is given by me in the 
Gardener's Monthly, 1866, pp. 291 and 292. The plant 
and the fruit have been carefully examined by many con- 
noisseurs and experienced vine-growers. They all unite in 
the belief that the vine is thoroughly healthy and vigorous, 
and " that the fruit is most excellent^'' to use the words of 
the Agriculturist in an editorial notice of it. See Agricul- 
turist, 1866, p. 438. 



THE GRAPE VINE. 117 

HYBRIDIZATION. 

There is a difference bet\Yeen hybridization and cross- 
ing, but as my object is not to enter here into scientific 
disquisitions, I will describe, as briefly as iDOSsible, the mode 
of the operation itself. Moreover we know that the species 
are not constant, but variable. 

The petals (floral leaves) of a vine blossom are five in 
number, cohering and thrown off by the stamens when 
the blossom is expapding. They look then like a cap. 
The fine stamens bear on their summits the anthers, 
little bodies covered with a fine powder or dust, called 
pollen. While the petals are raised by the stamens, fruc- 
tification frequently takes place before the petals are 
thrown off. This fructification is effected by the pollen, 
coming in contact with the upper end of the pistil. The 
pistil excretes a somewhat viscid matter on its upper end, 
to which the dust of the pollen adheres. It is then carried 
down into the ovarium, the lower part of the pistil. In 
this way fructification is accomplished. A small berry is 
formed which enlarges daily until it attains its proper 
size. A blossom not impregnated by the pollen, does not 
develop itself; it remains duninutive. 

To prevent natural fructification the blossoms must be 
carefully watched. As soon as some of them have opened 
on a certain cluster selected for artificial fructification, 
they are cut off with scissors, together with a number of the 
remaining buds to diminish the number. This not only 
facilitates the operation, but tends to develop those remain- 
ing much better. The petals of the buds left are then ex- 
aniined with a needle; they are lifted and removed. 
Should they not yield, they must remain undisturbed for 
an hour, or long enough for their removal. Should any 
blossoms expand during the absence of the operator, they 
must be carefully cut off, lest some of the pollen of their 
Btameus might reach the pistils of other blossoms already 



118 THE GEAPE YIXE. 

operated upon, thus rendering the experiment uncertain 
and unreliable. 

Pollen of the species or variety to be used for the male, 
is then taken up by means of a fine camels-hair painter's 
brush, and dus.ted by shaking or gently tapping the handle 
of the brush. This must be repeated several times on the 
same blossom. If the first operation was j^^i'formed in 
the forenoon, it ought to be repeated in the afternoon. 
Calm and warm weather is most favorable for this work. 
To enclose the clusters with thin ganze to prevent the in- 
terference of insects and wind, until the berries begin to 
swell, is certainly a very good plan. 

It i^ not often the case that the species or varieties, 
intended for hybridization, blossom at the same time, but 
the plant to be used as the male parent usually blooms 
earlier than the other. Some pollen is then shaken from a 
cluster, it being in the right condition, upon a piece of pa- 
per, and preserved in a tightly corked phial until wanted. 
Dubreuil asserts that pollen from some plants, preserved 
between two watch glasses, united and glued together by 
means of small pieces of joaper, will not lose its vital 
power in the course of a whole year. I do not think, 
however, that watch glasses are any better than tightly 
corked and sealed phials. Mr. Hovey, of Cambridge, 
Mass., fertilized his lily, Melpomene, with pollen from the 
auratum, when it bloomed for the first time in England, 
and obtained crosses which were in bloom last summer, 
showing unmistakably that hybridization had been accom- 
plished. That the 23ollen from vines remains good for a 
month, I know from actual experiments, and I do not 
doubt in the least that it will keep much longer. 

Hybridization ofiers a wide field for improving our na- 
tive kinds. As yet, our best grapes are chance seedlings ; 
still the experiments made by Messrs. Allen, Moore and 
Cay wood, are encouraging, though elFective hybridization 
is doubted by many. The criterion of Mr. A. S. Fuller is 



THE GRAPE YINE. 



119 



a very good one, .'indeed, viz. : To sow the seeds from a 
plant claimed to he a hybrid, and to ascertain whether 
the young plants sport much, some showing the charac- 
teristics of the father, others those of the mother. Should 
they all he similar to each other, the prohahility would he 
that hybridization had not been effected. 

Two years ago, I called the attention of my friend, Dr. 
Thurber, the scientific botanist, to eleven seedlings from 
Allen's Hybrid. They are so much alike, and so similar 
in their relation to the parent, that he was very much aston- 
ished at the fact before him. On the other hand, of the 
five hundred seedlings from the Isabella, raised by me, 
no two were alike in regard to lobation, growth, etc. 

Be this as it may, experiments in this direction ought 
to be continued with assiduity and zeal ; results will ulti- 
mately be reached, that will benefit the country in a high 

degree. ^ 

Here I will mention, in conclusion, that Naumann s 
Cibebe, the most beautiful of all grapes in form, is the pro- 
duct of an intentional, artificial crossing of the large yel- 
low from Smyrna and the Muscat Schwarz-Welsclier, ob- 
tained by the great ornithologist, Naumann, late Professor 
in the University of Leipsic. Mr. Neubert, of that city, 
made me a present of it. 

HINTS ON THE GENERAL MANAGEMENT OF 
AMERICAN SPECIES AND VARIETIES. 

I. -PLANTING. 

For planting, the fall is preferred by many, the spring 
by others. To protect the vines, regularly planted m the 
fall, from freezing and thawing during the winter, as well 
as from the water accumulating in the holes and forming 
ice in them, is much more difficult than to heel them in, 
and to preserve them in this way. On the other hand, 



120 THE GEAPE VINE. 

there is so much work to be done in the spring, that there 
is danger of hastening the planting too much, although 
this process is so important that it is impossible to do it 
too carefully. No mistake, made in planting, can after- 
wards be corrected. 

I have made many experiments, and have met with so 
many faihires and disappointments from fall planting in 
this latitude, that I buy such vines as I intend to try in 
the fall, but I always plant them in the spring. Buying 
in the fall is advisable, as a better selection can be made, 
but planting in the spring is surer of success. 

Heeling-in is an operation so well known, that I need 
not describe it here. Should the ground be stiff and 
heavy, it is much better to lay the plants against a little 
mound in a slanting position on the surface of the 
earth than in a ditch, in which the water would collect 
during the winter. Sand or fine soil ought to be used 
for filling in among the roots. This must be done so 
carefully that even the smallest rootlet is embedded in, 
and covered by, the sand or soil ; for mould will grow 
on roots not packed firmly in sand or soil. Soil may 
be used for increasing the thickness of the mound, cov- 
ering the roots, and some boards may be placed on the 
top of it to carry off the rain water, and to prevent the 
sun from warming the j^lants, so heeled in, too much. 
As the frost acts horizontally also — to speak not scientifi- 
cally, but practically — the covering ought to extend about 
two feet beyond the ends of the roots. In heeling-in I 
always cover the whole plants, roots and all. 

Vines keep very well in boxes, filled with sand, that are 
placed in the cellar, or they may be covered with sand in 
the cellar without boxes. 

Spring planting ought to be deferred till air and soil are 
sufficiently wanned, that is, from the middle to the end 
of April. Should the buds have commenced showing life 
again, it is so much the better. 



THE grapp: yi^e. 121 

Tlie roots of the plants must be carefully examined, in 
order to cut oif such as are bruised or broken. To shorten 
them a little, to have fresh cuts on all of them, is judicious, 
but to remove one-half or two-thirds of them, involves an 
injurious waste of strength. Finally, the vines must be 
cut down to the lowest well-developed bud. There is 
then no danger arising from bleeding. 

The holes for the plants ought to be large enough for 
the reception of the roots in their natural position, and 
about a foot deep. Then some fine soil is heaped up in 
the middle of each, resembling a mole heap, but more 
pointed and conical. On the top of this heap the young 
plant is placed, and its roots are spread out evenly, and 
properly arranged for making them grow in all directions. 
Fine soil is then sprinkled or sifted on them until they are 
well covered. Then some water must be poured on through 
the rose of a wateiing-pot, that the soil may settle, and 
the holes fill with soil, leaving a space of about four 
inches open during the summer. Rain showers will carry 
some soil into them, and fill them up partially, which is 
not injurious to the growth of the young plants. In the 
fall some more soil must be added to make them level. 

The roots ought to be four or sir inches below the 
ground, at least deep enough not to be injured by hoeing, 
digging, or plowing, but not too deep, as it is customary 
Avitli some. . The depth to which the soil is to be worked 
afterward is the surest guide ; the roots should^ under all 
circumstances^ he heyond the reach of the implements to 
he used. If the vines are to be layered during one or 
more successive years, to furnish them with more roots, 
they must not be planted in an erect, but in an inclined 
position, (at an angle of about 45°), otherwise it is not 
unfrequently difficult to bend them down and to lay them 
in a ditch, made for this purpose. 

The manacrement of plants having more than one tier 
of roots, or of such as are older, does not diifer in princi- 



122 THE GRAPE VINE. 

pie from that of young plants. Its modification, according 
to circumstances, will be obvious to any one intending to 
plant them. The long, woody roots of old vines must be 
very severely prmied ; they ought to be cut off below a 
thin succulent root, proceeding from them, and the cut 
ought to be made at its underside^ so that the wound may 
be pressed on the soil below. If cut at the upperside^ it 
will be apt to decay from the water falling or trickling 
down upon it. 

The plan of mulching vines, recently planted, is a good 
one ; to manure, however, the soil below or about their 
roots cannot be too stronidy denounced as injurious and 
dangerous in the liighest degree. Many vines are killed 
every year, or ruined beyond the possibility of recovery, 
by well-meaning, but inexperienced persons. While they 
would withhold fat pork or beef from a patient when con- 
valescent, and yet feeble in consequence of a severe shock, 
to which their health was exposed, they do not hesitate to 
treat a vine, in a similar condition, with a superabundance 
of heavy, indigestible food. Can anything be more incon- 
sistent ? 

II.— PRUNING. 

The principles of pruning as practised in Europe, and 
so lucidly explained by Dr. Mohr^ are undoubtedly cor- 
rect. Still, even in Europe, different countries require 
modifications in the application of them. This is also the 
case in the United States. The climate is warm during 
the summer; we have twice as much rain as in France, 
and much more when we compare the quantity of rain 
which falls here, with that which is received in California, 
where the temperature is very high. Then again, we have 
severe droughts with so small an amount of water in the 
air, that it is almost incredible. See the thoroughly sci- 
entific observations of J. S. Lippincott^ Esq., in the Re- 
port of the Commissioner of Agriculture, 1865, pp. 520- 



THE GJRAPE VIXE. 123 

550. His Vapor Index, for sale by J. W. Queen, 924 
Chestnut street, Pliiladelphia, is a most ingenious and 
convenient instrument for ascertaining at a glance the 
amount of aqueous vapor in the atmosjjhere, or in a room, 
provided a wet bulb thermometer in connection with a 
dry bulb thermometer can be consulted. 

The conditions of our climate favor a rampant wood- 
growth; consequently w^e must not prune too short to in- 
sure the health of the vine, and to obtain abundant crops. 

Tliere is another consideration of vital importance, t^ 
which I wish to call the attention of every horticulturist 
most earnestly. It liea in the fact that some kinds have 
their Fruit* shoots on the upper part of the cane, other's on 
the lower part. My friend, TFz/i. Saunders, Esq., the emi- 
nently able Superintendent of the Experimental Garden 
at Washington, cautions, on p. 15 of the Agricultural Re- 
port of 1865, against the close pruning of such rampant 
growers as the Clinton, Taylor, Alvey, Franklin, etc., 
asserting that they will bear profusely when but slightly 
pruned back; otherwise a mass of wood will be produced. 
This was incontrovertibly proven on my grounds last 
year. An Alvey that had borne abundantly the year 
previous, was pruned too close by a friend of mine, a 
skillful and experienced viticulturist. The result was ex- 
actly in accordance w^tli Mn Saunders' statement ; the vine 
in question, which was loaded with fruit the year previous, 
bore not more than half-a-dozen clusters last year. 

It is not alw?.ys without danger to recommend a single 
modification of the pruning principle as applicable to 
every variety. We know that certain kinds of the apple, 
pear, etc., require diiferent treatment in this respect ; how 
could it be expected, then, that all kinds of the vine should 
be alike ? 

What is most needed, therefore, is, to ascertain whether 
the loAver buds of the canes of certain varieties produce 
bearing shoots, or those more distant from the bases of 



124 THE GKAFE VINE. 

the canes. The true method of pruning them will be the 
result, so much desired. 

George HiLsmann. Esq., of Meriiiayin, Mls:^ourl, dis- 
covered accidentally that the laterals of the Concord and 
other strong growing varieties, when pruned in the fall to 
four or six "buds, pi'oduce the finest clusters and the most 
abundant crops to be obtained. This took place in 1862. 
See the Gidtivatlon of the Native Grape^ hy George 
Susmann^ p. 61. Since tlien he has adopted it altogether 
fjpr such varieties as mentioned, with tiie most satisfactory 
result. He suffers the shoots intended for bearing canes 
to grow about four feet high, and then removes their tops 
by pinching. He retains four or five laterals, which he 
pnmes, in the fall, to four or six buds. 

This is important ; expenments should be made to as- 
certain accurately the vjirieties most adapted to this mode 
of treatment, and the localities favorable to it. 

The correctness of Mr. IIusraann''s observations is 
corroborated by the results of similar experiments inten- 
tionally made in Germany, as early as 1857. They are 
mentioned and described by Dr. E. Liieas^ the celebrated 
scientific and j^ractical Pomologist and Director of the 
Pomological Institute at Meuttingen., in the Kingdom of 
Wurtemherg. In his Ammal for Nomologists^ Garden- 
ers^ etc., published in 1860, from pp. 59-61, he gives a de- 
tailed description of the successful experiments of Mr. 
Deiiringer^ of Sendling^ near Munich^ in Bavaria ; the}^ 
are exactly like those made by Mr. Husmann^ except that 
Mr. Deuringer suffered the shoots intended for canes to 
grow five or six feet high before he stopped them, in order 
to excite the growth of the laterals. 

Mr. Deuringer' 8 experiments are based on reasoning 
concerning the proper function of tlie laterals ; he invented 
his method, while Mr. Husmann discovered it. 

Mr. Husmann's personal character is so well known, 
and deservedly stands so high, that I am very far from at- 



THE GRAPE VINE. 125 

tempting to insinuate that he was acquainted with Mr. 
Deuringefs operations. The Annual is so rare, that it may 
be doubtful wdi ether there exists another copy of it in the 
United States than the one in my possession. The coinci- 
dence goes only to show how difficult it is in liorticulture 
to add anything not already known to somebody else to 
the stock of facts. 

Young plants must, at the fall pruning, be cut down to 
the lowest well-developed bud, that is, to the fii-st, second, 
or third. During the first summer they must not be tied 
to stakes, nor pinched. When trailing on the ground or 
climbing over some brushwood placed near them, the 
upper tendency of the sap, common to most plants, and 
especially strong in the vine, is, in a measure, counteracted, 
by which the root is very much strengthened. Also in the 
second year I treat them in this way. The treatment of 
older vines must be the same as that of plants but one 
year old. 

Before the vines attain the thickness of a finger, they 
must not be pruned long for bearing, but must be cut 
down in every successive fall. 

III.— PINCIIIXG. 

The shoots for bearing canes must not be pinched or 
stopped at all during their growth, and their laterals must 
be permitted to develop at will. In regard to the bearing 
shc5ots, it is doubtful to me whether close pinching, that is, 
beyond, or at the third leaf from the last cluster, is advan- 
tageous in this country or not. Apart from the practice, 
growing more into favor every day, according to which 
the shoots are left longer, and are, perhaps, pinched but 
once during the season, I am free to confess that I have 
done so much orthodox pinching, but with results so little 
satisfiictory to my expectation, that I feel strongly inclined 
to indulge in a little greater latitude in this respect than* 
formerly. Experiments, instituted on purpose, and varied 



12G THE GRAPE YIXE. 

as to varieties, sorts, and localities, are vcryrnucli needed; 
they will enable us to arrive at the true method. 

That the laterals of young plants, or of older ones trans- 
planted, must not be pinched, has already been observed 
in the above. 

IV.— COVERING IN THE FALL, AND LIFTING IN THE FOL- 
LOWING SPUING. 

In this extreme climate it is reasonable to lay the vines 
down on the ground and to cover them, especially such 
kinds as are tender. Still, all kinds are benefited by this 
l^rocess. 

Sand or sandy soil is a good material for covering ; stiff 
clay is objectionable. On the sand, flat stones are placed 
to keep the vines in place. 

Some use straw, manure, sods, and stones, without soil 
or sand, for covering ; these materials, however, ought to be 
avoided. They leave everywhere empty spaces, in which 
mice find shelter. Mice ar,e pests in a plantation of vines. 
Manure is apt to ferment, by whicli process the vines may 
be excited to a premature growth under the cover, and 
consequently they may greatly suffer or even perish. 

A very good coyering material is dust (refuse) of hard 
(Anthracite) coal. I have used it for a number of years 
with decided benefit, so that I shall not use anything else 
for the future. No mould is formed on the vines, so cov- 
ered, nor do mice or other animals harbor in it. 

As soon as the frost is fairly out of the ground in the 
Spring, that is, in the first weeks of April, the vines must 
be freed from their covering and left for a certain time to 
swing in the air, before they are tied to their poles or 
trellises. 

The rule ought never to be lost sight of, neither to cover 
too early, that is, not before the soil is frozen, nor to lift too 
early. 

Sheltering the vines by boards nailed on the top of the 



THE GRAPE VINE. 127 

trellis posts tends to protect them ngainst the attacks of 
mildew, according to Mr. Saunders' experience. Sucli 
partial roo-fs render radiation beneath them impossible, 
so that the vines, as well as the soil, remain warmer than 
without protection. Dr. Schroedei%o^ BJoomhigton. Illi- 
nois ^rawlQhQ's his vines four or six inches deep with straw, 
after they had ceased blossoming. Vines, so treated, were 
free from mildew, and the grapes did not rot. 

I might devote here some space to insects and other 
animals, injurious to the vine; but as I cotild hardly do 
more than repeat what is found in many books, I forego 
it. The chief remedy lies in the hand of the vine grower ; 
thrips yield only to the application of sulphur. 

AMEPaCxVX YAPtlETIES. 

It would not only be almost impossible, but also use- 
less, to give hei*e a complete list of native grapes ; both 
the amateur and the professional grape grower will 
resort to other source^ for their information on this point, 
not to this book. We mention here only the most valuable 
kinds, nearly all of Avhich we have tested in our own 
grounds, following chiefly the American Horticultural 
Annual for 1867, without even changing the wording of 
many descrijDtions ; for they are very concise and charac- 
teristic. 

AdirOQdac. — Black. A good and healthy grower in our 
grounds. Fruit very fine, sweet and luscious. 

Allea'S KysDrid. — White. Tolerably healthy with us, 
sweet and vinous. 

Alvcy. — Black. A vigorous, healthy grower; suffers 
very little from mildew ; juice colored ; skin exceedingly 
thin ; without pulp. Ripens in September. It improves 
very much by hanging long on the vine, from which it 
never drops. Vinous, sprightly and refreshing. 



128 THE GRAPE VINE. . 

Anna. — AYhite. A poor bearer and grower with us. 
Higirflavored, tough pulj). 

Catawba. — Red. Too well known to need description. 
Is doing well in our grounds. 

Clinton. — Black. A healthy, rampant grower. Colors 
long before it is ripe. Not fit for the table, but good for 
wine. 

Concord, — Black. Known as the grape for the million. 

Crevcling. — Black. Good healthy grower. Hardy and 
very early. Cluster loose. Very valuable. 

Delaware. — Red. Delicious. A good, not a rampant 
grower. Hardy, but mildews in some localities. 

Diana. — Red. Does very well wath us, but is not to be 
depended upon in some localities. High flavored and 
sweet. Skin very thick. Keeps well. 

Diana Hamburg. — Black. A delicious grape, but said 
to be late. 

Elsinbur^. — Black. Very fine and hardy grape. Very 
small, clusters large. 

Hartford Prolific. — Black. Very early, vigorous, hardy. 
Sweet, tough, acid pulp. Drops from the peduncle. 

Herbemont. — Black. Very small, clusters large ; vinous 
and excellent, but late. 

lona. — Red. Healthy in many localities, in others it 
suffers from mildew. Fruit praised in every respect for 
table and wine. 

Isabella. — Black. Known everywhere. Very variable 
and uncertain. 

Israella. — Black. Good and early grape. 

Ives' Seedling. — Black. Highly praised for wine. 

Lydia. — White. Hardy and early ; promises very well. 

Martha. — White. A white Concord, but sweeter. Very 
vigorous and healthy. 



THE GKAPE YIXE. 1;29 

Maxatawney,— White. Vigorous and healthy, but late. 
When thoroughly ripe it is a fine grape. 

Miles. — Black. Very early and better than Hartford 
Prolific. 

Norton's Virginia. — Black. Known and praised as the 
I est grape for red wine. 

Rebecca. — White. Very fine, but a poor grower on its 
own roots. Should be grafted on the roots of some vigorous 
variety. 

Rogers' Hyl)ri (is. —Black, red, and amber. Most of 
them vigorous growers and healthy. Benies and clusters 
in some of them very large and fine. The following are 
known as very valuable: Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, 15, 19, 2,2, 
30, 33, 43, 44. 

To Kalon. — Black. Healthy with u^, but a poor bearer ; 
excellent. 

Union Village.— Black. Very large and showy; of fair 
quality. A good grower with us. 

Walter. — Red. Very sweet and high flavored; veiy 
early. 

Weehawken.— White. A most remarkable seedling of 
ours, raised from a seed of a Crimean variety, imported by 
us. The most healthy of all our vines. Cluster beautiful ; 
vinous, high flavored. Never mildewed. Not yet dis- 
seminated. 



6* 



THE 

BY 



ANDEEW S. rULLEE. 



NEW AND ENLARGED EDITION. 



THE STANDARD WORK 

ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE HARDY GRAPE, 

AS IT NOT ONLY DISCUSSES PRINCIPLES. 

BUT 

ILLUSTRATES PRACTICE. 

E-vex-y tiling is made perfectly plain, and. its teacli- 
ings naay Tae followed npon 

ONE VINE OR A VINETABD. 



The following are soiue of the topics that are tren^d 

Growing New Varieties from Seed. 
Propagation by Single Buds or Eyes. 

Propagating Houses and their Management fully describ^o^ 
How TO Grow. 

Cuttings in Open Air, and how to Make Layers. 
Grafting the Grape — A Simple and Successful Method. 
Hybridizing and Crossing — Mode of Operation. 
Soil and Situation — Planting and Cultivation. 
Pruning, Training, and Trellises — all the Systems Explains^ 
Garden Culture — How to Grow Vines in a Door- Yard. 
Insects, Mildew, Sun-Scald, and other Troubles. 
.Description of the Valuable a>d the Discarded Varieties. 



Sent post-paid. Price $1.50. 



Orange Judd ^ Co., 4rl !Park ±^ow. 



MY VINEYARD AT LAKEVIEW; 

OR, 

SUCCESSFUL GEAPE CULTURE. 

BY A WESTERN GRAPE GROWER. 

ILLUSTRATED. 

To any one who wishes to grow grapes, whether a single vine or a "viric- 
yard, this book is full of valuable teachings. The author gives not only hia 
success, but, what is of quite as much importance, his failure. It tells just 
what the beginner in grape culture wishes to know, with the charm that 
always attends the relation of personal experience. 

It is especially valuable as giving an account of the processes actually 
followed in 

CELEBRATED GRAPE REGIONS 

in "Western New-York and on the shores and islands of Lake Erie. 

This book is noticed by a writer in the Horticulturist for August last as 
follows : " Two works very different in character and value have just been 
published, and seem to demand a passing notice. The better and less pre- 
tentious of the two is ' My Vineyard at Lakeview,' a charming little book 
that professes to give the actual experience of a western grape grower, de- 
tailing not only his successes, but his blunders and failures. It is written 
hx a pleasant style, without any attempt at display, and contains much ad- 
vice that will prove useful to a beginner — the more useful because derived 
from the experience of a man who had no leisure for fanciful experiments, 
but has been obliged to make his vineyard support himself and his family." 



Written in a simple and attractive style, and relating the experience of one who felt 
krs way along into the successful cultivation of a vineyard in Ohio. — Mass. Ploughman, 

It is the experience of a practical grape grower, and not the theory of an experi- 
menter.— ^a^/i Daily Sentinel and Times. 

It has no superior as an attractive narrative of country life.— Hartford Daily Post. 

Many books have been written on the grape, but this is the only work that gives an 
account of grape growing as actually practiced at the successful vineyards in the grape 
region of the West, and will be welcomed by a large class of readers. — New-Bedford 
Standard. 

This little volume contains, in an attractive form, and in clear and concise language, 
just the information needed to enable any one to become thoroughly posted up in this 
delightful and profitable branch of horticulture.— Vermont Farmer. 

Just the manual for a beginner, by one who says "he is well rewarded in the success 
actained." Adding, "it might have been reached in half the time, had I possessed th« 
knowledge imparted to the reader of this hoo^''- -Boston, Cultivator. 

Sent Post-paid Price, $1,50, 
ORANGE JUDD & CO., 41 Park Row, New-York. 



THE 

SMALL FRUIT CULTURIST. 

BY 

AXDREW S. FULLER. 
Beaiitlfidlij Illustrated, 

We have lieretofore had no work especially devoted to small 
fruits, and certainly no treatises anywhere that give the information 
contained in this. It is to the advantage of special works that tlio 
autlior can say all that he has to say on any subject, and not be 
restricted as to space, as he must be in those works tliat cover the 
culture of all fruits — great and small. 

T'lis book covers the whole ground of Propagating Small Fruits, 
their Culture, Varieties, Packing for Market, etc. While very full on 
the other fruits, the Currants and Raspberries have been more care- 
fully elaborated than ever before, and in this important part of his 
book, the autlior has had the invaluable counsel of Charles Downing. 
The chapter on gathering and packing the fruit is a valuable one, 
and in it are figured all the baskets and boxes now in common use. 
The book is very finely and thoroughly illustrated, and makes an 
admirable companion to the Grape Culturist, by the same author. 

OOIVTEIVTS: 

Chap. 1. Batibep.ry. Chap. VII. Gooseberry. 

Chap. II. Strawberry. Chap. VIII. Cornelian Cherry. 

Chap. III. Raspberry. Chap. IX. Cranberry. 

Chap. IV. BLACiiBERRY. Chap. X. Huckleberry. 

Chap. V. Dwarf Cherry. Chap. XI. Sheperdia. 

Chap. VI. Currant. Chap. XIL Preparation pop. 

GATHERING FrUIT. 



Sent post-paid. Pries $1.50. 



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